Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses three ethnographic field methods to investigate sensory perception among the Mambai of East Timor: (1) smell diaries and olfactory pollution mapping, (2) sensory stimulus-based elicitation, and (3) habitat walks. Preliminary data, reflections, and tweaks shall be presented.

Paper long abstract:

How might researchers study sensory perception among indigenous communities undergoing conditions of environmental degradation from hydrocarbon extraction?

Long-term ethnographic fieldwork has revealed some of the cultural, linguistic, and bodily resources through which coastal Mambai communities of East Timor pay considerable attention to sensory perception including olfaction, touch, and balance (in a physical, psychological, and metaphorical sense) in their everyday life experiences. To investigate these perceptive resources three ethnographic field methods were developed and implemented through feedback from the community and engagement with the theoretical insights and empirical methodologies of sensory studies (Stoller 1997; Geurts 2003; Howes 2006), phenomenology (Merleau-Ponty 1945; Jackson 1995), psycholinguistics (Enfield 2013; Majid and Burenhult 2014; Wnuk and Majid 2014), habitus and body techniques (Mauss 1935; Bourdieu 1977; Wacquant 2004). These field methods are (1) smell diaries and participatory mapping of olfactory pollution, (2) sensory stimulus-based elicitation, and (3) habitat walks with community members. This paper discusses these methods and shares preliminary data, field reflections, and tweaks for future research.

In conclusion this paper highlights the impact of hydrocarbon extraction on Mambai sensorium, and invites discussion on how field methods can be developed to address the multisensory aspects of science and technology studies on human and non-human dimensions of resource extraction.