The Scented Ape
The Biology and Culture of Human Odour

David Michael Stoddart (Author)

9780521395618, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 29 November 1990

300 pages
22.8 x 15.2 x 1.4 cm, 0.47 kg

Both men and women devote time and effort to removing natural body odour and replacing it with sexual attractant odours derived from plants and animals - we seem to need to smell of something other than people! Yet of all the apes, we are the most richly endowed with scent producing glands. This book examines the sense of smell in humans, comparing it with the known functions of the same sense in other animals. Odorous cues play a role in sexual physiology and behaviour in animals and there are claims that odour can play the same role in humans. The place of odours and scents in aesthetics and in psychoanalysis serves to illustrate the link between the emotional centres and the brain. The book presents arguments to explain the way in which our ancestral past has given rise to our modern day olfactory enigmas. The material is presented with as much explanation of the technical detail as possible to make the book accessible to a wide readership.

Preface
Acknowledgements
Part I. The Human Nose - A Zoological Conundrum?: Part II. Chemoreception and the Origin of Sexual Reproduction: 1. Chemical communication and the hypophysis
2. Neural connections between nose and brain
Part III. The Scented Ape: 3. The sebaceous glands
4. The apocrine glands
5. Axillary odours
6. Saliva and urine
7. Circumanal organ
8. Hair Meibomian, ceruminous and vestibulum masi glands
9. Human body odours
Part IV. The Naso-Genital Relationship: 10. Vaginal secretions
11. The ovarian cycle
12. The human menstrual cycle
13. Olfaction in sexual development
Part V. Scent and the Psyche: 14. Evidence from philosophy, psychoanalysis, aesthetics and folklore
15. Evidence from experimental studies
Part VI. Perfume: 16. Ancient perfumes and their uses
17. Modern perfumes and their uses
18. Why do humans wear perfumes?
Part VII. Incense: 19. Ancient uses of incense
20. Ingredients of incense
21. The odours of incense
22. Support from animal studies
Part VIII. The Noselessness of Man: 23. Ecology of parental investment
24. Bipedalism, hunting and human evolution Gregariousness, oestrus advertisement and the pair bond
25. Human concealed ovulation and olfactory desensitisation
26. Epigamic selection and male external genitalia
27. Axillary scent organs as secondary sexual characters
28. Conclusion
Part IX. The Human Nose and the Monkey's Tail
Glossary of technical terms
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Human biology [PSX], Animal behaviour [PSVP]