Taste, smell, sight, hearing, touch—together, they form a sensory web that envelopes us with stimuli. The human senses don’t operate separately or in a vacuum. When we touch another living being, it is always a reciprocal experience.

Touch tends to be considered one of the five human senses, but perhaps it extends to non-humans, too. When a friend’s greyhound greets me by gently biting my hand, both of us touch each other. The chair that’s supporting my body as I write these words is undoubtedly touching my buttocks, thighs, and back. And what about the sunbeams that brush across my face as I walk to the bakery each morning? It may seem there is nothing simpler, more obvious, or intuitive than touch, but upon deeper reflection—on its place in society, in relationships, and in the culture that shapes us—doubts begin to suddenly pile up, definitions crumble, and boundaries, once so strictly defined, lose their meaning.

All in Your Head?

The separation of the human body into five senses has been a part of the Western belief system for over two thousand years and is the foundation of knowledge about human sensuality—imparted from kindergarten through college, considered when discussing literature, design, architecture, and philosophy, as well as during casual conversations at the family table. According to this division, each sense is associated with a specific organ: sight is the eyes, hearing is the ears, smell is the nose, and taste is the tongue. Thus the majority of human