The first known use of perfume was the burning of incense as a sensory camouflage to mask the scent of burning human flesh. This flesh, being circumcised foreskins, was used as offerings to Gods. This incense was also thrown onto burning animal offerings during religious rituals.
Today, perfume is mass-produced and widely used as a mask for body odor among males and females alike, or just as a pleasant scent, perhaps to entice members of the opposite sex. *If only we could bottle pheremones.
*Without excessive murder.
See: Sexy Origins of Intimate Things, by Charles Panati, which is among the many sources of information on the origins of perfume, foreskin, and circumcision.