Today, perfume may serve a similar purpose, not so much for transcendence, but rather to ward off the unwanted advances of more earthly subjects. Piet Vroon explains:

"We do not want to be treated in too personal a way in public; after all, nothing is as personal as your body odor. In order to 'keep your distance,' the obvious thing to do is to replace your body odor with an 'anonymous' lotion, aftershave or perfume. [...] According to various researchers, then, perfumes [...] have a certain protective role[.] [I]t is conceivable that long ago women had a biological interest in keeping [the scent of] their ovulation hidden. According to the theory of evolution, the process of natural selection would have encouraged the body's production of masking substances, and if those masking substances are not yet present, a woman might look in her environment for substances to mask a body odor which indicates that she is fertile."

The rest, you could say, is history. Although adornment today serves many functions, a quick gander around your office or university will reveal that its original purpose still thrives today in some form. As you look around, you might see an old man wearing a gold cross or a Star of David, a woman wearing an Irish ring called a Claddagh, or a young woman with a nose stud in the form of the ancient Yin/Yang symbol. You might even get a whiff of someone's perfume. Open your eyes and expand your nostrils and you'll begin to realize that adornment's first function had little, if anything, to do with attraction. Its original purpose was much more simple: protection.

~~~

Selected Bibliography:

-Classen, Constance, David Howes and Anthony Synnott. Aroma: The Cultural History of Smell. New York: Routledge, 1994.
-Cunliffe, Barry, ed. The Oxford Illustrated Prehistory of Europe. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.
-Flügel, J.C. The Psychology of Clothes. International Universities Press, Inc., no date.
-Gimbutas, Marija. The Language of the Goddess. San Francisco: Harper & Row Publishers, Inc., 1989.
-Gravel, Pierre Bettez. The Malevolent Eye: An Essay on the Evil Eye, Fertility and the Concept of Mana. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 1995.
-Stringer, Christopher and Robin McKie. African Exodus and the Origins of Modern Humanity. New York: Henry Holt and Company, Inc., 1996.
-Vroon, Piet, Anton van Amerongen and Hans de Vries. Smell: The Secret Seducer. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1994.

Photo Credits:

(1), (2) and (3):

-Holländer, Eugen. Äskulap und Venus: Eine Kultur und Sittengeschichte im Spiegel des Arztes. Berlin: Im Propyläen - Verlag, 1927. pages 158, 160 and 361, respectively.