Antropologicheskij forum, 2016, no. 30

A Review of CONSTANCE CLASSEN, THE DEEPEST SENSE: A CULTURAL HISTORY OF TOUCH. Urbana; Chicago; Springfield: University of Illinois Press, 2012, XVII+227 pp.

Maria Pirogovskaya

European University at St Petersburg
3 Gagarinskaya Str., St Petersburg, Russia
mpirogovskaya()eu.spb.ru

Abstract: “The Deepest Sense: A Cultural History of Touch”, a monograph by Canadian scholar Constance Classen, explores certain cultural contexts of touch in the Middle Ages and early modern era in Europe. The author questions the popular schema of the cultural evolution of the senses “from basic medieval touch to modern dominance of sight” and seeks to demonstrate more complex and versatile dynamics of tactile practices. The review problematises synchronic and diachronic approaches to the cultural study of touch and discusses the principles of data choice and analysis in the history and anthropology of the senses.

Keywords: anthropology of the senses, tactility, cultural history, modern society.

To cite: Pirogovskaya M., 'A Review of Constance Classen, The Deepest Sense: A Cultural History of Touch. Urbana; Chicago; Springfield: University of Illinois Press, 2012, XVII+227 pp.', Antropologicheskij forum, 2016, no. 29, pp. 245–256.

URL: http://anthropologie.kunstkamera.ru/files/pdf/030/pirogovskaya.pdf