How Culture Shapes Our Senses - Article Example

The familiarity with common substances makes it easy for English speaking to identify them without having trouble. However, it becomes difficult when one is presented with unfamiliar content, not common to the culture to which one belongs. This is so because our senses are unable to recall since there is less interaction with the objects.

The above concept was proved when the research team presented what ought to be familiar to Americans, they gave terrible naming to them, and the majority did not have an idea. Contrarily, there was a positive result in the Jahai, rain forest as the foragers were familiar with scratch-and-sniff cards. They were also as good at smelling as seeing. This proved the central subject that cultures dictate an individual’s senses.

Therefore, it is clear that culture plays a significant role in determining an individual’s sensory awareness. What people keep in touch with most of the time sticks in their memory to shape them. Moreover, people are unable to identify smells they are unfamiliar with since they do not associate them with their culture.