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Scents of Place: The Dysplacement of a First Nations Community in Canada
Author(s) -
Jackson Deborah Davis
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1111/j.1548-1433.2011.01373.x
Subject(s) - alienation , sense of place , indexicality , transformative learning , perception , aesthetics , semiotics , sociology , sense of community , environmental ethics , agency (philosophy) , history , epistemology , political science , social science , art , philosophy , law , pedagogy
Here I explore how the experience of place at a First Nations reserve in Ontario, located in the middle of Canada's “Chemical Valley,” is disrupted by the extraordinary levels of pollution found there. In so doing, I give special attention to air pollution and residents’ responses to associated odors—that is, to the sense of smell. Focusing on a unique feature of smell—that it operates primarily through indexicality—I draw on C. S. Peirce's semiotic framework to highlight ways in which perception of odors entails embodiment of the perceived substance, thus connecting self and surroundings in profound and transformative ways. Ultimately, I argue that the local smellscape, while having reinforced a sense of positive emplacement on the reserve in the past, is now, because of the constant presence of toxic fumes, instilling in residents a profound sense of alienation from the ancestral landscape—a condition I call “ dysplacement.”