引言

The sense of smell, or olfaction, is powerful. Odours affect us on a physical, psychological and social level. For the most part, however, we breathe in the aromas which surround us without being consciously aware of their importance to us. It is only when the faculty of smell is impaired for some reason that we begin to realise the essential role the sense of smell plays in our sense of well-being

引言

嗅觉是一种强大的感官。气味在身体、心理和社交层面对我们产生影响。然而，大部分情况下，我们会无意识地吸入周围的气味，对其重要性没有意识到。只有当嗅觉因某种原因受损时，我们才开始意识到嗅觉在我们的幸福感中所扮演的重要角色。

自然段A

A survey conducted by Anthony Synott at Montreal’s Concordia University asked participants to comment on how important smell was to them in their lives. It became apparent that smell can evoke strong emotional responses. A scent associated with a good experience can bring a rush of joy, while a foul odour or one associated with a bad memory may make us grimace with disgust. Respondents to the survey noted that many of their olfactory likes and dislikes were based on emotional associations. Such associations can be powerful enough so that odours that we would generally label unpleasant become agreeable, and those that we would generally consider fragrant become disagreeable for particular individuals. The perception of smell, therefore, consists not only of the sensation of the odours themselves, but of the experiences and emotions associated with them.

自然段A

蒙特利尔康考迪亚大学的安东尼·西诺特进行的一项调查要求参与者评论嗅觉对他们的生活有多么重要。结果表明，气味可以引发强烈的情绪反应。与美好经历相关联的气味可以带来喜悦，而恶臭或与不愉快记忆相关联的气味可能让我们厌恶。调查的受访者指出，他们对气味的喜好和厌恶很大程度上是基于情绪关联。这样的关联可以非常强大，以至于我们通常认为令人不快的气味对特定个体而言变得可爱，我们通常认为芬芳的气味对特定个体而言变得令人不愉快。因此，嗅觉的感知不仅包括气味本身的感觉，还包括与其相关的经历和情感。

自然段B

Odours are also essential cues in social bonding. One respondent to the survey believed that there is no true emotional bonding without touching and smelling a loved one. In fact, infants recognise the odours of their mothers soon after birth and adults can often identify their children or spouses by scent. In one well-known test, women and men were able to distinguish by smell alone clothing worn by their marriage partners from similar clothing worn by other people. Most of the subjects would probably never have given much thought to odour as a cue for identifying family members before being involved in the test, but as the experiment revealed, even when not consciously considered, smells register.

自然段B

气味也是社交联结中必不可少的线索。调查中的一位受访者认为，如果没有接触和闻到爱人的气味，就没有真正的情感纽带。事实上，婴儿在出生后不久就能认出母亲的气味，成年人通常可以通过气味辨认出自己的子女或配偶。在一个著名的测试中，女性和男性能够仅凭气味区别配偶穿过的衣物与其他人穿过的相似衣物。大多数参与者在参加测试之前可能从未考虑过气味作为识别家庭成员的线索，但实验揭示了即使在没有意识考虑的情况下，气味也会被注意到。

自然段C

In spite of its importance to our emotional and sensory lives, smell is probably the most undervalued sense in many cultures. The reason often given for the low regard in which smell is held is that, in comparison with its importance among animals, the human sense of smell is feeble and undeveloped. While it is true that the olfactory powers of humans are nothing like as fine as those possessed by certain animals, they are still remarkably acute. Our noses are able to recognise thousands of smells, and to perceive odours which are present only in extremely small quantities.

自然段C

尽管嗅觉对我们的情感和感官生活非常重要，但在许多文化中，嗅觉往往是最被低估的感官。经常提到的低估嗅觉的原因是，与动物相比，人类的嗅觉能力较弱且不发达。虽然人类的嗅觉能力确实远不及某些动物，但它们仍然非常敏锐。我们的鼻子能够识别成千上万种气味，并能感知只存在极小量中的气味。

自然段D

Smell, however, is a highly elusive phenomenon. Odours, unlike colours, for instance, cannot be named in many languages because the specific vocabulary simply doesn’t exist. ‘It smells like. . . , ‘ we have to say when describing an odour, struggling to express our olfactory experience. Nor can odours be recorded: there is no effective way to either capture or store them over time. In the realm of olfaction, we must make do with descriptions and recollections. This has implications for olfactory research.

自然段D

然而，嗅觉是一种非常难以捉摸的现象。与颜色不同，我们无法用许多语言命名气味，因为专门的词汇根本不存在。当描述一种气味时，我们必须说“它闻起来像...”，努力表达我们的嗅觉体验。气味也无法记录：没有有效的方法来捕捉或存储气味。在嗅觉领域，我们必须依靠描述和回忆。这对嗅觉研究产生了影响。

自然段E

Most of the research on smell undertaken to date has been of a physical scientific nature. Significant advances have been made in the understanding of the biological and chemical nature of olfaction, but many fundamental questions have yet to be answered. Researchers have still to decide whether smell is one sense or two – one responding to odours proper and the other registering odourless chemicals in the air. Other unanswered questions are whether the nose is the only part of the body affected by odours, and how smells can be measured objectively given the nonphysical components. Questions like these mean that interest in the psychology of smell is inevitably set to play an increasingly important role for researchers.

自然段E

迄今为止，大部分关于嗅觉的研究都是物理科学性质的。对嗅觉生物学和化学特性的理解已经取得了重要进展，但仍有许多基本问题有待回答。研究人员仍需确定嗅觉是一种还是两种感官-一种回应真正的气味，另一种注册空气中无味化学物质。其他未解答的问题包括鼻子是否是唯一受气味影响的身体部位，以及如何客观地测量气味，考虑到其中的非物理成分。这些问题意味着对嗅觉心理学的兴趣必然在研究人员中扮演越来越重要的角色。

自然段F

However, smell is not simply a biological and psychological phenomenon. Smell is cultural, hence it is a social and historical phenomenon. Odours are invested with cultural values: smells that are considered to be offensive in some cultures may be perfectly acceptable in others. Therefore, our sense of smell is a means of, and model for, interacting with the world. Different smells can provide us with intimate and emotionally charged experiences and the value that we attach to these experiences is interiorised by the members of society in a deeply personal way. Importantly, our commonly held feelings about smells can help distinguish us from other cultures. The study of the cultural history of smell is, therefore, in a very real sense, an investigation into the essence of human culture.

自然段F

然而，嗅觉不仅仅是一种生物学和心理学现象。嗅觉是文化的，因此它也是一种社会和历史现象。气味富有文化价值：在某些文化中被认为令人讨厌的气味可能在其他文化中完全可以接受。因此，我们的嗅觉是一种与世界互动的方式和模型。不同的气味可以给我们提供亲密而情感丰富的体验，而我们对这些体验所赋予的价值则深深地内化于社会成员之中。重要的是，我们对气味的共同感受可以帮助我们区别于其他文化。因此，对嗅觉的文化历史研究实质上就是对人类文化本质的调查。