Stench is often the most immediate mark of something dirty, decaying and diseased. In India, stench and the smell of acrid smoke commonly indicate the proximity of an open dump or landfill. Frequently a slum is located in the vicinity too, housing waste‐pickers who forage in these sprawling dumps for salvageable waste. These spaces are also host to vermin, birds, stray dogs, pigs, cows and, more recently, dangerous bacteria resistant to even top‐end antibiotics, popularly known as ‘superbugs’. In this paper I examine the socio‐ecological context of neighbourhood, community open garbage dumps and larger landfills in an effort to understand these as part of a dynamic ecosystem of ‘more‐than‐human’ relations. Perceptual variations of smell as experienced in and around waste (in its solid, liquid and gas states) are intrinsically linked to symbolic and material practices across species. Additionally, I suggest that one productive way to think about the emergence of disease and pathogenicity is by considering the information stimulated by smell, which is mediated by cultural interpretations, biological capacities and wider political economies.

中文翻译：

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恶臭和敏感性：在印度与废物，动物和微生物共处

恶臭通常是肮脏，腐烂和患病的最直接的标记。在印度，恶臭和刺鼻的烟味通常表明附近有露天垃圾场或垃圾填埋场。附近经常也有贫民窟，那里有捡拾垃圾的人，他们在这些庞大的垃圾场中觅食，以寻找可回收的废物。这些空间还收容了害虫，鸟类，流浪狗，猪，牛，以及最近对危险细菌产生抵抗力的细菌，这些细菌甚至对高端抗生素都具有抵抗力，通常被称为“超级细菌”。在本文中，我研究了社区，社区开放式垃圾场和较大的垃圾填埋场的社会生态环境，以期将其理解为“人与人之间”关系动态生态系统的一部分。废物及其周围（在固体，液态和气态）与物种间的象征性和物质性实践存在内在联系。另外，我建议，一种考虑疾病和致病性的有效方法是考虑由气味激发的信息，这些信息是由文化解释，生物能力和更广泛的政治经济学所介导的。