Chapter Review-Julie Bonello PDF

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Julie Bonello 1134759 ANTH1150 Tad McIlwraith 1 February, 2021 From Water to Wine Chapter Review The first chapter of From Water to Wine by Jess Auerbach describes her experience with scent in Angola during her field work. Auerbach describes the scents on the way into the city and then begins to focus on the meaning of scent in Angolan culture. Auerbach is introduced to Dr. Diego who offers her a job at The College of Stars in Lobito to work as a music teacher. Auerbach is after informed by a friend that she must purchase perfume in order to ‘smell right’ for a teaching position, wearing an imported perfume would allow the students to trust in her knowledge and listen to her teachings. Through meeting many people such as Flàvia, Celestino and Joyce, Auerbach has been told that wearing imported perfume tells others that you are globalized, have money to travel and are knowledgeable. She asks anyone she can about perfumes, why they purchase them and the importance of scent in Angola. Through field work and participant observation Auerbach discovers the importance of scent in Angolan culture in relation to class and social status. In the Perspectives textbook field work is discussed as a research technique widely used by anthropologists. Perspectives describes field work as when “Anthropologists conduct their research in the field with the species, civilization, or groups of people they are studying” (Nelson

2019:16). Auerbach conducted field work in Angola living and working with the people, she kept track of her observations during her field work by using “paper notebooks, my phone and voicenotes...complemented by thousands of photographs” (Auerbach 2020:50). Participant observation is also discussed in Perspectives, it is said that “Participant observation research allows anthropologists to obtain a special kind of knowledge that is rarely acquired through other, more limited research methods” (Nelson 2020:23). Auerbach's observation of scent may have only been found through this field work and participant observation because one must be living and working in the community to understand the cultural relevance of scent and perfume in Angola. In Perspectives Lynn Kwiatkowski conducted fieldwork and utilized participant observation in the Philippines as a healthcare worker, she participated in day-to-day activities and rituals in order to gain knowledge on their insufficient access to nutritious food and sources of health concerns caused by social structure. Bother Auerbach and Kwiatkowski used field work and participant observation to gain deeper insight into their respective regions and cultures. Reading the chapter on scent From Water to Wine raised a few questions for me, the main one being: During Auerbach's time in Angola, would she have noticed the connection to smell and social standing without initially being told by her friend Victoria? Victoria’s initial advice to purchase perfume sparked Auerbach to question others about scent and perfumes. If Victoria had not told Auerbach to buy perfume in order to be respected by her students, I believe that she may not have realized any connection until later. Perhaps her students may have visibly not taken her seriously or coworkers may have approached her about it. The direct connection between scent and social standing in Angola interests me because I do not pay particular attention to the way others smell. Though if someone smells really nice or strongly like body odor it is noticeable, I would not think to associate that with their social status. I am more likely to assume they are

simply wearing a lot of perfume, have not had a chance to shower recently or take poor care in personal hygiene. This shows me how access to non-essential items such as perfumes can increase or decrease their meaning and value. Word count: 604

Work Cited Auerbach, Jess. 2020. From Water to Wine: Becoming Middle Class in Angola. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Nelson, Katie. 2019. Introduction to Anthropology, in Brown, Nina, Thomas McIlwraith, and Laura Tubelle de González. 2019. Perspectives: An Open Introduction to Cultural Anthropology. Second Edition. Washington DC: Society for Anthropology in Community Colleges/American Anthropological Association, pp 3-27....