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Originally Posted by
Khendraja'aro
Furthermore, that "cultural" angle is just a nice notion, but not actually grounded in reality.
http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/...l.pcbi.1000740
Consider the French, who produce some really noxious cheese. However, they don't produce perfumes with cheese odor. Makes one wonder why, if the sense of smell was subjective.
This is the strangest objection I have ever seen. Do you want your food to smell like perfume? Do you want your perfume to smell of steak? Bottom line is that few people willingly make food that they themselves consider to smell disgusting in the context of food. That you can use a machine to "reliably" discriminate between good and bad odours taken out of context doesn't change that.
Here, from the article you posted:
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when tested out of context, odorant pleasantness is relatively constant across cultures as revealed here. To stress this point, we predict that if our odorants were presented to subjects within context, e.g., in foods, than the native Israeli and native Ethiopian participants may have then diverged in their pleasantness ratings. For example, peppermint may be rated as a pleasant smelling food in only one of two cultures. However, both cultures may then find peppermint equally pleasant when presented out of context in a jar. Indeed, many may wonder how the French can like the smell of their cheese. However, it is not that the French think the smell is pleasant per se, they merely think it is a sign of good cheese. To prove the point: the French don't make cheese smelling perfume! In other words, culture influences olfactory hedonics mostly in particular contexts. When out of context, odor pleasantness is less culturally variable, and we argue that it is this context-free component that was captured by our apparatus.
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And all those people here who demand tolerance: What would you say if an Icelander opened a tin can of Hákarl in your kitchen? I mean, the polite Icelander opens that stuff only when being very far away from any sign of civilization.
I'm sure you'd have no problems explaining the problem to the Icelander. As you noted, even they wouldn't open a tin of that stuff in a corridor, because even they think that it's pretty rough, or remember how it was for them before they got used to it. Moreover, why are you comparing hakarl to whatever dish it is she was cooking? Was she fermenting fish or something??
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And Aimless, I'd really like you not to be snobbish about your eating culture. Because I don't like it when someone calls our dishes "bland" or that we "white westerners" lack a "proper food culture". Because YOU sure as hell are being RACIST right now, my dear. So, get the hell down from your high horse, because your shit doesn't smell like flowers either. Did I make myself clear?
Perhaps I didn't make myself clear. I specified a category of white westerners that lack a proper food culture or that prefer bland food, and who may therefore not get that sort of relationship with food or get how people might really enjoy strong-smelling foods. I didn't say that all white westerners lack proper food culture or that they prefer blandness, because that would be patently untrue. Who am I, someone who is pathologically intolerant and provocative?? :confused:
On another note, I like German food, even though I'm told it's summat crude. It's hearty and tasty and if I could I'd have Bavarian breakfasts every day :heart:
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Oh, and you may find it bland only because we don't drive the taste down your throat with a sledgehammer.
I'm pretty sure it's because you guys didn't have much in the way of spices until fairly recently.
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Originally Posted by
Khendraja'aro
Or, to drive the point home:
You have someone with body odour in your class. However, instead of actually telling him about it, everyone avoids the subject. And keeps clear as much as possible of the person in question.
How is this better? You have upheld your precious tolerance at the cost of the guys' integration into the class, as he'll have find it much harder to fit in.
Sorry, I'm a firm believer in "Get the issues out in the open" instead of "Let's only talk about it behind the person's back." Because in the long run, the latter approach is actually more sustainable.
To be honest, I've never seen a problem like that be resolved to everyone's satisfaction, but perhaps you have. What I do know is that talking about it behind his back isn't the only alternative to getting it out in the open. Of course, I've seen instances where people are more than willing to make it clear to a person that he smells bad, but with no results--so it became just another part of bullying, like telling a person he's ugly or that he's "weird".
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And why exactly are we called upon to avoid offending foreigners when they are free to offend us?
What I was saying in my previous post was that they probably don't realise that they're offending you, and these things should therefore be handled with tact, not with your characteristic lack of it. You may argue that you didn't realise you may be offending them, or making them feel very very small and disgusting, and I'd buy that. Sometimes people just don't take those things into consideration. Eg. when they're so obsessed with how offended they've been, when they're so full of anger at the offense they have been given, by some foreigner no less. Man, some people are really really good at being really offended.
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"Respect is a strange river: It doesn't only go downstream but also upstream."
Exactly, so maybe you should consider showing some respect for people by taking into consideration the possibility that they may not realise that they're causing you such great offense, and that they may be hurt by the way you bring it up.
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Originally Posted by
LittleFuzzy
I take it, Minx, that you would be in favor of banning alcohol at wedding receptions? Since statistically speaking, at least one person there is going to be an alcoholic or recovering alcoholic, and putting an addict in that situation is way worse for them *whether they think so or not* than buttering a dinner roll in a vegan's presence.
Er, what? I'm not sure that comparison has anything at all to do with the previous discussion of vegan weddings. Is the bride a recovering alcoholic?? :confused: A better comparison may be about expecting alcohol at a Muslim wedding, although I know that many Muslims don't mind if other people drink because what's important for them is that they follow the rules.
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Originally Posted by
Cracky
What ever happened to being courteous to guests?
What does being courteous to guests have to do with putting aside strongly held political or ideological views? What happened to being courteous to your hosts?
