Om sinnessymbolik, sinnesträning och en sinnIighetsmedveten etnologi

Abstract

On Sensory Symbols, Sensory Training, and a Sensorily Aware Ethnology The Museum of CulturaI History in Lund has four engraved glass plates depicting four of the senses. The woman who symbolizes hearing is playing a flute; Tactus, or feeling, is holding a bird in her outstretched hand; Odoratus is smelling a spray from a flower-basket. Gustus, or taste, is holding a knife in her hand, ready to peel the fruit in an urn, figs 1-4. The glass plates were engraved by the German engraver Poul SchindIer, who was employed by King Frederik III of Denmark from 1661 until his death in 1689. SchindIer copied the motifs from a series of copperplates from the 1560s by Abraham de Bruyn, which also includes Visus, sight, looking at herself in a hand mirror, figs 5-9. The classical senseswere thus revived in the Renaissance and baroque eras, but at the same time they were associated with biblical narratives. The monkey, for example, became the symbol of taste because of his predilection for apples, which in turn led to associations with the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. Depictions of the senses with these motifs are known from a mural from 1645 in northern Sweden, of which fig. 10 is an example. Through their partial nudity, the representations of the senses can lead our thoughts to Eros, earthly love, but as semi-supernatural beings they can also convey something supersensual, transcendental. The depictions of the five senses teach us that we need practice to make us responsive to visual impressions, to develop our hearing and sense of smell, to make our hands sensitive to touch, and to refine our palates. The senses can register both positive and negative impressions; these contrasts may serve an educational purpose, as inAmos Comenius' Orbis sensualium pictus. The church was highlyaware of the significance of the senses and of sensory training, both in the Middle Ages and in the Counter-Reformation, as weIl as in the later practice of the Lutheran church. In academic teaching, too, there was awareness of the importance of training both body and soul. The concrete symbols of the senses gradually disappeared, but out of feeling there emerged feelings, emotions, which acquired greater importance in the middle of the rationaI eighteenth century. When neology lost its influence in theology and romanticism replaced rationalism, people began once again to speak of the importance of the senses. "The Senses", which had formerly appeared in both classical and biblical guises, are now seen in the form of real living young girIs, dressed in native folk costumes. With the breakthrough of national romanticism, people collected all the "stored sensuality" that was found in vernacular architecture and domestic fumishings, in household implements and costumes. It was with the senses that Artur Hazelius taught city dwellers and foreigners to experience Swedish folk cul ture in all its great diversity and beauty. It is only by fieldwork that a researcher can acquire wholly adequate sensory impressions of the Sitz im Leben of human actions. Yet Auditus was given pliority over Visus. In contrast, the museums rely on Visus, but they have militated against Tactus, since the exhibits may not be touched. A sensorily aware ethnology must focus on man as a complete being. It is through people that things take on their sensual dimension. As examples of research areas which are closely associated with sensuality, the author cites annual and life-cycle festivals, foodways, and picturelore, with the emphasis on the messages ofpictures. Folklore likewise reveals our sensuality. The interest in the senses is ultimately based on an increased interest in corporeality. Yet a sensorily aware ethnology should not just stop at external sensory impressions; it should also approach the deep dimension of empathy. Empathy aims at understanding. The highlighting of the sensory dimension is deliberately intended to give a hint of the possibility of making ethnology even more human, even richer, without transforming it into a science of opinions and tastes. Even when we write about taste, we are analysing the expressions of taste. We are thereby simultaneously concerned with fleeting fashions and eternal human nature. Translatian: Alan Crozier