Tracing Yoruba heritage in Brazil through olfactory landscapes : a sensory approach to cultural heritage

Rodrigues, Bruno C. L. (author), Queiroz, Luana P. (author), Fleming, Bernardo (author), Vieira, Noemi J. (author), Ribeiro, Ronilda Iyakemi (author), Caldas, Alcides S. (author), Leblebici, Mumin Enis (author), Strlič, Matija (author), Nogueira, Idelfonso B. R. (author)

This study explores the role of olfaction in linking Brazilian cultural expressions with Yoruba heritages. Brazilian culture is deeply rooted in African traditions brought across the Atlantic, and this connection is evident in its foods, celebrations, and practices. Through a multidisciplinary approach combining bibliometric and historic review, fieldwork, and sensory analysis, the research reveals how distinct aromas, ranging from the scent of aromatic plants used in celebrations to culinary ingredients, act as olfactory markers of identity and collective memory in the state of Bahia and in a religious community in São Paulo. Historically, the transatlantic slave trade brought Yoruba peoples to Brazil, embedding their traditions deeply into the region’s cultural and everyday life. By documenting the shared olfactory elements between Bahian festivals such as the Lavagem do Bonfim and the practices observed within Yoruba-based cultural expressions in the Oduduwa Temple in São Paulo, the study underscores the significance of olfactory heritage to Afro-Brazilian culture and calls for greater scholarly attention to it. Recognizing smell as a dynamic conduit for history and emotion offers new insights into the survival and evolution of cultural traditions, urging further transdisciplinary research into the sensory narratives that shape our collective identities.

• Language: English
• Keywords: olfactory heritage, sensory analysis, Yoruba, Afro-Brazilian culture, aromas
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FKKT - Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: 39 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 8, iss. 11, art. 457
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-175629
• UDC: 543.92:7.025:159.933
• ISSN on article: 2571-9408
• DOI: 10.3390/heritage8110457
• COBISS.SI-ID: 255747075
• Publication date in RUL: 06.11.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Heritage
• Shortened title: Heritage
• Publisher: MDPI AG
• ISSN: 2571-9408
• COBISS.SI-ID: 1538164675

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: vohalna dediščina, senzorična analiza, joruba, afro-brazilska kultura, arome

Projects

• Funder: Other - Other funder or multiple funders
• Name: SCENTINEL

• Funder: Research Council of Norway
• Project number: 351190