L'odeur de l'autre : approche anthropologique de l'olfaction

Summary. For a long time, the subject matter of odour has not been studied by the biologica) anthropology insofar as it did not belong to the group of observable and measurable objects. The first obstacle lies in the anthropological cognitive process, with an observer (or a subject) who smells and an object (or another subject) that is smelt. This difference of status which exists between "to smell" and "to be smelt" has been in the part a great epistemological obstacle since smell« a non metric characteristic is not a whole but something separable into two parts (what smells and the one who smells). For biologica) anthropology it mainly deals with understanding the way smell is considered as a receptor element of the phenomenon of non verba) sexual communication. The interest in smell rests is the understanding of the mechanism of pheromones chemical agents for