Foundations of French Sensorial Anthropology
Résumé
Within French anthropology, interest
in
the study of the senses might seem to be quite recent,
but from another perspective, it has a long history,
which even predates anthropology. It first emerged
in the context of the philosophical debates of the
eighteenth century, which centered on the figure of
the “savage” or “natural man.” This essay traces how
successive generations of French anthropologists
from Pierre Laromiguière down to Claude Lévi-Strauss
have taken cognizance of the senses in their writing