CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2015
| Author | Aras, Roxana Maria |
|---|---|
| Title | Sacred Smellscapes: The Olfactory in Contemporary Christian and Muslim Lebanese Communities |
| Summary | The cultural anthropologist Nadia Seremetakis perceptively remarked that when odors fade away…narratives, memories, and feelings linger on. They are the remnants of the ephemeral. In tune with her insight, this research engages in the study of the olfactory by paying attention to its engendered effects. In my experimental endeavor, I put forward the concept of “sacred smellscape”, arguing that smells can become place-related by cyclical employment. I analyze the construction of these smellscapes in the frame of religious rituals where odors are recurrently used. An engaging environment for this project is the present multiconfessional context of Lebanon. Here various religious communities interact under the authority of a state system carved across confessional lines. The present urban “-scape” of its capital Beirut was the focus of a three-week field research. In this time span, its inhabitants became my interviewees, while its streets, churches and mosques were part of my participatory observations. Four religious denominations make the focus of this project: Maronite Christianity, Rum Orthodoxy, Reformed Protestantism, and Sunni Islam. More precisely, I pay attention to their ritualistic usage of bukhūr, an Arabic term roughly translated as incense. Firstly, I look into how believers affiliated to one of these confessions experience the fragrant smellscape created by bukhūr. Secondly, I argue that these “-scapes” are multilayered, the religious olfactory being culturally and historically contingent. In case of the latter, I focus on the Lebanese Civil War of 1975-1990 and its lingering imprints on the social fabric and urban topography of Beirut. The investigation of the cultural dimensions takes the shape of “a one-day journey” in Beirut. To begin with, the reader steps inside the official spaces of worship affiliated to the four religious denominations. The focus here is on how the communities of believers senses and makes sense of bukhūr within prescribed religious rituals. As he steps out, he is immersed into the olfactory culture of post-war Beirut. At this moment, smells stand as witnesses for the fragrant Mediterranean culture and become instruments of social and economic identification and differentiation. Finally, attention shifts to the domestic spaces in Beirut. Here insights are provided into how bukhūr is employed and experienced in private religious practices. |
| Supervisor | Professor Nadia al-Bagdadi |
| Department | History MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2015/aras_roxana.pdf |
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