Aroma breaks the 'olfactory silence' of modernity by offering the first comprehensive exploration of the cultural role of odours in Western history - from antiquity to the present - and in a wide variety of non-Western societies. Its topics range from the medieval concept of the 'odour of sanctity' to the aroma-therapies of South America, and from olfactory stereotypes of gender and ethnicity in the modern West to the role of smell in postmodernity. Aroma will make essential reading for students of cultural studies, history, anthropology and sociology.