Dare To Ask Talk And News About Our Differences - This topic has 62 replies, 63 voices, and was last updated 18 years, 1 month ago by
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It all goes back to our hunter gatherer ancestory, its often said that members of different tribes had a distinct sent to them, the reasons for this can vary, be it safe guarding tribe mixing or enemy detection. I often find that when I enter another persons house whos not a member of my family (tribe), they have a distinct oder that I notice. Taking that into acount people who are members of another race much less another tribe, would of course have a distinct sent to us, the scent has often been said to also be a warning as well, if the scent of the person is revolting to you then they were your enemy, if it was pleasant then they were friend. Having said that the different body scents of different people go back to our ancestors who used all of their scences to survive.
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Name : Peter-Kay, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 56, City : Parkcity, State : OK, Country : United States, Occupation : college proffesor, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,Indians and whites are basically the same type of people, Caucasoid, so the differences in smell would have to be a result of their differing diets.
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Name : A.P.R., Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Hispanic/Latino (may be any race), Religion : Agnostic, Age : 17, City : Washington, State : DC, Country : United States, Occupation : Student, Education level : High School Diploma, Social class : Middle class,A.P/R. wrote that ‘Indians and whites are basically the same type of people, Caucasoid, so the differences in smell would have to be a result of their differing diets.’ I must protest. ALL humans are biologically basically ‘the same type of people,’ with far more variation within each ethnic group than between groups. Many variations exist between identifiable groups (‘populations,’ biologists would say). The old combining of all these populations of humans into 3 ‘races’ (such as ‘Caucasoid’) has no biological basis, merely a a social significance. Just like what we like to eat! I would agree with some writers that most of the difference between smells of ethnic groups is due to diet, group fashions or preferences in cosmetics, hygiene customs and so forth, and that there are also differences between individuals that are noticeable primarily by dogs. Since there are surely individual differences (as any dog will tell you), it is not inconceivable to me that there may be some odor differences between family groups and therefore between populations, but our modern social ethnic categories are combinations of so many populations, and so very mixed also (for example, most American ‘blacks’ are partly or mostly ‘white’) that I think it would be hard for a particular odor difference in one small population to spread through and be perceivable throughout a whole socially-defined ethnic group.
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Name : David, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Jewish, Age : 47, City : Berkeley, State : CA, Country : United States, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class,Grin, I haven’t ever noticed that other races smell any differently myself. I suspect any odor would occur from the personal habits of the person in question, and perhaps to some extent the diet of that person.
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Name : Gringo, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 24, City : Lubbock, State : TX, Country : United States, Occupation : Engineer, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,I’m white, and I’ve noticed the ‘rotten milk’ smell too. There was a girl I dated in high school, and her kisses smelled like this. We didn’t date long. I also noticed a ‘black’ smell, a sort of body order that most black people share. OF course, this was in elementary school, back when not everyone bathed everyday. I haven’t noticed it in any adult who keeps up with hygiene. I did have an Indian friend who smelled like curry — her hair, her clothes, her sweat. And when you stood on the porch of their house, you could smell it. And when you went in their kitchen, you could practically eat the smell. Her mom spent most of the time cooking, I believe. You are what you eat. The smells of the things you consume will travel in your body and come out through your pores.
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Name : Lawpoop, City : Columbus, State : OH, Country : United States,sometimes, when you’re in a enclosed space, say, your house, and food is cooking, the smell soaks into your clothes and hair and whatnot. this, as far as logic goes, makes sense. in fact, it’s kind of obvious.
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Name : knowles, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Buddhist, Age : 24, City : new brunswick, State : NJ, Country : United States, Occupation : security technician, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class,I think it has to do with what people eat and what kind of odoring/deodorizing products they use. I stopped eating meat a few months ago and switched to a lot of noodles and noticed that my room started having that asian smell. As far as the products go, the differences probably come from which ones people grow up around and are more familiar with, and thus are more likely to buy. I was in a Korean market and found these deoderant cakes that smelled just like my friend’s grandparents’ place.
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Name : Greg, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 19, City : Oakland, State : CA, Country : United States, Occupation : Student, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,I have noticed a scent difference in different races. There’s nothing racist about it, I just have. I can tell induviduals by their smells too. It’s the same kind of thing. And I have noticed that black people smell somewhat like cocoa butter. It’s probably a combination of diet and race, because since different races are built differently, I’m sure they smell different too.
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Name : Jenna, City : Concord, State : CA, Country : United States,Most of the reason has to do with dietary preferences. The body produces different waste (metabolite) products depending on your diet. People who tend to eat dairy and dairy-based products get that spoiled milk smell. Coffee and alcohol also produce strong odiferous metabolites. Curries are particularly potent, not just from sweat glands, but also the aerosolized oils from cooking that sticks to hair and clothing. Personally I have noticed that ‘cocoa butter’ odor from some blacks and have wondered of its origin as well.
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Name : JanKee, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Hispanic/Latino (may be any race), Religion : Buddhist, Age : 28, City : Raleigh, State : NC, Country : United States, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class,i think people’s diets have a lot to do with it. the more natural foods i eat …the less smell problem their is. i dont like people who smell of deodrants. and also scents ….i like natural human smell….sniff sniff
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Name : poppy, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Disability : ADD chronic, Race : europe latin, Religion : pantheist, Age : 46, City : balerna, State : NA, Country : switzerland, Occupation : carer,If you eat a lot of particular spices, they will come out in your sweat as well as other bodily fluids. Mint is this way; so’s coffee, and so’s cinnamon and other curry spices. Anyone who’s ever drank a lot of strong, rich coffee can tell you that even your urine can smell of coffee. If you eat a lot of mints (Altoids addict, or cough drops) it will smell of mint — menthol, the essential oil in mint, can get all throughout your body. The same goes for other strong spices. Japanese sources from early in the contact between Japan and Europe also describe Europeans as smelling of spoiled milk. It’s probably because we eat cheese! I understand many Asians and Blacks don’t, due to lactose-intolerance. So that’s probably a reason it’s noticed more across racial lines (er, why whites don’t think each other smell like that) — we all eat too much cheese to notice. 🙂 When I was involved with a Black woman, it was her hair cream rather than skin lotion which I noticed as smelling strongly — of coconut. And it got -everywhere-. 🙂
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Name : Anonymous23710, Race : White/Caucasian, City : No, State : NA, Country : No,Though this isn’t directly relevant to the original message, please note that referring to ‘black’ as a race is pretty silly from a genetic point of view. There is more genetic variation within Africa than outside; essentially, one group left and colonized the rest of the world. On a separate topic, anyone who’d like to experiment with the effect of diet on smell should try a B-multivitamin. The effects, while a bit subtle, are extremely quick.
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Name : AK, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, Age : 34, City : Berkeley, State : CA, Country : United States, Occupation : Professor, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class,The whole Mongoloid/Caucasiod/Negroid thing is an outdated methodology. People from India aren’t any more similar, genetically, to those from Europe as from (for example) China.
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Name : Ben, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Bisexual, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Agnostic, Age : 21, City : Ann Arbor, State : MI, Country : United States, Occupation : pizza delivery, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class,Okay, I consider myself a connoiseur of body odor (believe me, I’ve huffed a few pits in my day), so here’s my take on it. My boyfriend is Mexican, but because he eats so much Indian food, he smells like curry a lot. If he eats a burger with a lot of onions, then he smells oniony (and consequently, I tell him to go shower). I haven’t noticed any different smell from blacks other than the unwashed nerd smell of my old roomie, who would sit in front of the computer looking at porn for hours on end, and the smell of lotion of ladies on the bus. I don’t know what that ‘stale cornchip’ comment was all about. I haven’t gotten close enough to any indian people in order to smell their body’s true odor, but I have smelled lots of Japanese, and they just usually smell like clothes. My Korean boyfriend smelled like deodorant and garlic. My conclusion is that body smells are mostly diet-related, so while you may be somewhat correct in your statement, as far as the ethnicity/cultural connection goes, it’s a very general comment, and those are dangerous to make. It’s not socially responsible to tag an odor on someone’s ethnicity.
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Name : Jen, Gender : F, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Agnostic, Age : 27, City : LA, State : CA, Country : United States, Occupation : customer service rep, Education level : High School Diploma, Social class : Lower class,I have a friend whose body odor changed drastically as he went from meat eating to vegetarian, and then from vegetarian to vegan. Also, I used to chew on whole cloves instead of breath mints, and my friends mentioned that my body odor was spicier (but then, it could have been my breath). If it really is just diet, though, it seems that you would see more body odor variance w/r/t culture than race, since culture has more of an affect on how people eat than their appearance.
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Name : SCU, City : Nashville, State : TN, Country : United States,
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