The Broken Cycle

The concept of a ‘broken cycle‘ —the break-up of the ecological ‘cycle of smell’in an urban environment—is proposed as a heuristic device to interpret the olfactory situation in a Bangkok soi (lane). In the slums in the soi garbage accumulates around habitations but the stench is not particularly offensive to the inhabitants—mostly rural immigrants—owing to their accustomed attitude to garbage as part of the ecological cycle in the rural environment. In contrast, the inhabitants are highly sensitive to ‘objectivity’ weaker body odors. A marked ‘olfactory dualism’ thus prevails, which is interpicted in terms of the personalis tic character of Thai socioculture.