Grease and sweat: Race and smell in Eighteenth-Century English culture.

Journal article


Tullett, William 2016. Grease and sweat: Race and smell in Eighteenth-Century English culture. Cultural and Social History. https://doi.org/10.1080/14780038.2016.1202008
AuthorsTullett, William
Abstract

From 1690 to 1800 texts printed in England linked racial difference and foul odour through understandings of occupation, food, cosmetics and sweat. Even by the end of the eighteenth-century racial odour was represented as a labile, culturally and environmentally determined characteristic. This article traces how the social ‘use’ of olfactory stereotypes, particularly their links with cosmetics, food, and odorous spaces, determined the mobilization of explanations for and attitudes to racial scent. It argues that ideas of race should not be considered monolithic or described in terms of narratives that posit a divide between the body/culture, but that racial stereotypes should be understood as collections of traits, of which smell was one, with distinctive histories.

KeywordsRacism; Eighteenth century; Race; Early modern; Body; Cultural history; History; Space; Smell; Senses
Year2016
JournalCultural and Social History
PublisherTaylor & Francis
ISSN14780038
14780046
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1080/14780038.2016.1202008
Web address (URL)http://hdl.handle.net/10545/622954
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
hdl:10545/622954
Publication dates04 Jul 2016
Publication process dates
Deposited07 Sep 2018, 09:09
Rights

Archived with thanks to Cultural and Social History

ContributorsKing's College London and History Department, King’s College London
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