シェルパの生活と匂い

Abstract

文化により特有の匂いがあり, また匂いの知覚・認知の仕方が異なることはしばしば言われる. しかし, これまで文化の違いと匂いの関係が実際に確かめられたことはない. そこで, 日本人とシェルパの間で匂いに関する文化的な違いを比較するために, 次の4つの調査がネパールのナムチェバザール近隣で実施された. 1)匂いの文化的特徴の記述. 2)T&Tオルファクトメーターを用いた嗅覚能テスト. 3)20種の食品フレーバーを用いた匂い分類テスト. 4)匂いサンプリング. これらから, 次の3つの結果が得られた. (1)香の利用や食物の匂いなどに伝統的な特徴がみられた. (2)日本人と比較し匂いに対する感受性は3.3倍高かった. (3)日本人で匂いの質の一つとして抽出された「魚臭い(腥臭)」がシェルパの分類になかった. これはシェルパが魚を食べる習慣も持っていないことに起因すると考えられた. これにより, 文化的経験の違いが匂いの分類に影響していることが示唆された.

Anecdotal description have pointed out that each culture has distinctive odors, and that people recognize odors in different ways between cultures. This study attempted an experimental approach to examine how Sherpa people living in Namche Bazar, Nepal, recognize various Japanese food-odors. Olfactory detection threshold was measured with T&T olfactometer which was a Japanese standard olfactory test. This demonstrated that Sherpas' ability of odor-detection was 3.3 times as good as Japanese'. In odor recognition test, twenty artificial flavors of Japanese common foods was used as stimulus odors. Thirty six sherpas participated as subject in the experiment. The subjects were instructed to classify these flavors into groups according to the similarity of odor-quality. Subjects were allowed to sniff as long as they like. The number of groups formed and the number of flavors involved in a group were also free to each subjects. Perceptual similarity of the odors was calculated from the frequency where each pair of flavors was classified into the same group. Then, the similarities were analyzed by Multi-Dimensional Scaling and Cluster Analysis. As a result, the flavors formed 8 distinct clusters in sherpas. Each cluster had characteristic odorqualities. Though these cluster were basically similar between Sherpas and Japanese, there was one distinct difference; Japanese people classified fishy-odors as one characteristic group whereas sherpas did not. This difference of odor recognition may be derived from the difference of food-culture; traditional Sherpas never eat fish. This may be a demonstration that the different experience of odor make different odor classification system.