Sensual Contact Zones.

Making the Case for the Senses in Colonial History

Abstract

This paper takes its point of departure in popular colonial cookbooks that describe how tastes ‘from home’ were to be imitated as accurately as possible in the tropics. It suggests looking at colonial contact zones in a new way, using methods of sensory history in two steps. First, the paper investigates how different sensory regimes clashed in the contact zones and how everyday colonial experiences, their related colonial sensory regimes, and competitions were processed in ‘civilizing missions’. Second, it analyses how a history of colonial sensuality can contribute to our understanding of colonial suppression, racism, and the negotiation of power structures.