Sensorial Investigations

“When we play Howes’ sensory games, everyone wins. . . . We need [his] sensory studies if we are to have our willow bark and eat our aspirin too.”

—Brian Glenney Social History of Medicine

“David Howes is a leading figure in sensory studies. In this masterful work, he addresses an extraordinary array of topics and theories in uncovering the history of the legal, anthropological, and psychological dimensions of the senses. In showing how the senses are made, not given, Howes offers an expansive analysis that both links and extends each of these disciplines in unexpected ways.”

—Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Faculty of Arts, Design & Architecture, University of New South Wales Sydney

“This engaging and erudite book reminds us that the academy suffers, to a greater or lesser extent, from sensory deprivation. For David Howes, history and anthropology invite a crossing of cultures and disciplines through the senses. For the law, Howes advocates a ‘cross-cultural jurisprudence’ in which song, dance, and smell coexist with the written word. Sensorial Investigations celebrates ‘con-sensus’ rather than ways of knowing tied exclusively, and senselessly, to words on a page.”

—Nicholas Kasirer, Justice, Supreme Court of Canada

“In Sensorial Investigations, David Howes shows how an anthropology of the senses deepens and expands our understanding of human history and potential. Meticulously exploring varieties of sensory experience, and challenging the universalizing reductions of social science, this book helps us learn more from difference. The investigations described and prescribed open an exciting vista for a sensorial mode of attention in the human sciences.”

—Judith Farquhar, Professor Emeritus, Department of Anthropology, The University of Chicago

“Sensorial Investigations is a timely, exciting, and vitally important contribution to the interdisciplinary field of sensory studies, especially sensory anthropology and sensory history. Erudite and wide-ranging in scholarship, it is inventive in its argument and written in lively, engrossing prose by a leading light in the field.”

—Peter Denney, author of The Senses in World History

“‘Neuroscientists need to get out of their own heads,’ David Howes says in introducing his rich and thought-provoking exploration of the sensorium. His bold project of crossing disciplines, cultures, and historical periods delivers a vision of the senses that takes us far beyond the narrow explorations of philosophy and the sciences.”

—Raymond Tallis, author of Seeing Ourselves: Reclaiming Humanity from God and Science

“Sublime and magisterial, Sensorial Investigations is a critical assemblage and rereading of Wittgenstein, Arendt, Simmel, and many others.  At once provocative, accessible, and poignant, Howes deftly charts the intellectual trajectory of the senses anew and pronounces nuanced and interdisciplinary approaches that both make and unmake the senses. A must-read for researchers and students of sensory inquiry.”

—Kelvin E. Y. Low, Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, National University of Singapore

“When we play Howes’ sensory games, everyone wins. . . . We need [his] sensory studies if we are to have our willow bark and eat our aspirin too.”

—Brian Glenney Social History of Medicine

“David Howes is a leading figure in sensory studies. In this masterful work, he addresses an extraordinary array of topics and theories in uncovering the history of the legal, anthropological, and psychological dimensions of the senses. In showing how the senses are made, not given, Howes offers an expansive analysis that both links and extends each of these disciplines in unexpected ways.”

—Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Faculty of Arts, Design & Architecture, University of New South Wales Sydney

“This engaging and erudite book reminds us that the academy suffers, to a greater or lesser extent, from sensory deprivation. For David Howes, history and anthropology invite a crossing of cultures and disciplines through the senses. For the law, Howes advocates a ‘cross-cultural jurisprudence’ in which song, dance, and smell coexist with the written word. Sensorial Investigations celebrates ‘con-sensus’ rather than ways of knowing tied exclusively, and senselessly, to words on a page.”

—Nicholas Kasirer, Justice, Supreme Court of Canada

“In Sensorial Investigations, David Howes shows how an anthropology of the senses deepens and expands our understanding of human history and potential. Meticulously exploring varieties of sensory experience, and challenging the universalizing reductions of social science, this book helps us learn more from difference. The investigations described and prescribed open an exciting vista for a sensorial mode of attention in the human sciences.”

—Judith Farquhar, Professor Emeritus, Department of Anthropology, The University of Chicago

“Sensorial Investigations is a timely, exciting, and vitally important contribution to the interdisciplinary field of sensory studies, especially sensory anthropology and sensory history. Erudite and wide-ranging in scholarship, it is inventive in its argument and written in lively, engrossing prose by a leading light in the field.”

—Peter Denney, author of The Senses in World History

“‘Neuroscientists need to get out of their own heads,’ David Howes says in introducing his rich and thought-provoking exploration of the sensorium. His bold project of crossing disciplines, cultures, and historical periods delivers a vision of the senses that takes us far beyond the narrow explorations of philosophy and the sciences.”

—Raymond Tallis, author of Seeing Ourselves: Reclaiming Humanity from God and Science

“Sublime and magisterial, Sensorial Investigations is a critical assemblage and rereading of Wittgenstein, Arendt, Simmel, and many others.  At once provocative, accessible, and poignant, Howes deftly charts the intellectual trajectory of the senses anew and pronounces nuanced and interdisciplinary approaches that both make and unmake the senses. A must-read for researchers and students of sensory inquiry.”

—Kelvin E. Y. Low, Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, National University of Singapore