Scharfstein makes another point in chapter two. On page 85, he regards the inhabitants of Malaysia, and their view of smells. In their culture, everyting is classified by a smell, pleasant or disgusting. The moon is said to smell like flowers, and the sun is said to smell like raw meat.
This is interersting, considering we still categorize things as pleasant or unpleasant by our sense of smell. Also, we categorize just about everyting using every one of our senses. If a certain thing pleases our sight, smell, touch, and hearing, or atleast one of these, then it is considered pleasant.
The problem is that in the ancient cultures these things were universally accepted or disposed of. Everyone agreed by a whole. Nowadays, universality is becoming more and more prominent, because everyone is entitled to their own opinion. So beauty has become highly subjective.
But the thing to keep in mind is that art evolves with society. When the people of Maylasia compared the sun to raw meat, they were agreeing with what their culture told them to. Now that we live in a diverse culture, art has evolved and branched off into many different things. Thus leaving the question, "What is Art?"
I'm sure there were people who had their own opinions about what their society told them to think, and even disagreed with certain things, they just didn't make it public knowledge for fear of ridicule. In today's society, it is commonly accepted that everyone should have their own opinion about certain things, and that we can also express these opinions openly without fear of retribution.
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