3 - Care Custody and Conservation and olfactory culture in the Arabian Peninsula

Presentation Abstract
We often associate culture with the visual, material, monumental. You can first of all see it, touch it. It is a testament to human prowess and - often masculine - heroic feats. Smell on the other hand is elusive; smells come and go, wafting in and out of one’s nostrils; they are fleeting, evasive, a whirlwind of molecules waiting to be intercepted.

Smell is a book of memories, a language in and of itself (Qabbani). In the Middle East, little of this richness has gone recorded. Much of it remains embodied, second nature, passed down from mother to daughter, father to son.

Knowledge around scent creation is the fruit of decades of sourcing, mixing, and smelling. There are no hard recipes; the magical mix depends on the ingredients at hand, the mood, the temperature, and the nose. Discretion was and remains very much part of the culture. Approaching someone with the hope of extracting knowledge is a very delicate issue. Few of the older generation are keen to open up to strangers. It is an uncomfortable request. The knowledge they keep within themselves is part of their story, to be shared among friends and family, not strangers. It is also a way to protect it from the endless cycle of commodification - of recipes, stories, scents.

This paper will explore the elusiveness of smells in the modern classification of material culture in places like Kuwait, where women are custodians and protectors of scent rituals.