Communicating Sacred Meanings Through Perfumes: From the Bible to Current Times
Additional information
Authors
Lattao P.,
Cantoni L.
Type
Book chapter
Year
2026
Language
English
Abstract
Perfumes have been extensively used in religious contexts, stimulating memories, suggesting meanings and promoting inner motions in a vertical movement from human beings to God. The paper re-traces the role of perfumes within the Biblical tradition and within the Christian message, highlighting its role in cultural practices, as well as a signifier of a pure orientation toward Heaven. Such role has been constantly in dialogue with perfumery practices and ingredients, creating a very rich and nuanced olfactory language. The research adopts a qualitative method to explore these dimensions.
While in current times perfumes appear less linked with religion or religious practices, it keeps several active links with them, as highlighted in the second part of the paper, which presents a dialogue with two major experts, exploring how current perfumes and practices have been deeply inspired and influenced by such tradition.
Book
Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics
Publisher
Springer Nature Switzerland
Pages (or article number)
69-82
ISBN
9783031994807, 9783031994814
ISSN
2198-7246, 2198-7254
Diffusion
License
License undefined
Visibility
Private
