Author Description

"For several decades sociologists and cultural anthropologists have intensively researched the role of the senses in a variety of cultures, and their studies reveal how different cultures understand and evaluate the five or more senses in unique ways. In this collection of eighteen essays, biblical and ancient Near Eastern scholars apply the questions and methods raised by cultural anthropologists to Israel, Mesopotamia, and Egypt. Experts offer insights into the meaning of the senses in ancient texts and images, examining the classical senses (seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, tasting) as well as other senses (such as kinethesis and the sense of balance) and sense-related issues (such as disgust, sensory imagination, and disabilities)."--