Smells Like kurban Spirit
Smells Like kurban Spirit

Ritual Sensoryscapes, Social Change and Ethnographic Memory

Summary/Abstract: This paper aims at exploring the potentialities of sensory ethnography and anthropology in the field of the Balkan studies, through the case of the kurban, a ritual practice endowed with a rich sensory environment. At once perceived from emic and etic perspectives, the sensoryscape of the kurban is addressed at the crossroad of ethnographic memory, ritual performance and social change, through a set of examples mainly drawn from Bulgarian fieldwork experiences. Taking the sensory dimensions as revelatory of the contemporary dynamics of the ritual, I argue that social transformations imply or correlate sensory transformations. The inextricable link between social and cultural categories, and sensory and cognitive perceptions, leads me to focus on different complementary notions such as experience, ambiance, relational ecology, attention and memory. Beyond the case of the kurban, the article finally addresses some of the complex issues raised by sensory approaches in ethnography and anthropology.

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