Matter Out of Place

Anthropological Explorations of Bodies, Dirt and Morality

Rebecca Lynch, Roland Littlewood, Joseph Calabrese (Herausgeber)

Buch | Hardcover

204 Seiten

2025
Berghahn Books (Verlag)
978-1-80539-683-3 (ISBN)

Noch nicht erschienen (ca. Januar 2025)
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Anthropologists often use ‘pollution’ to refer to social and individual challenges to a cultural idea of purity, which may be seen in terms of religious practice, foodstuffs and social differentiation. It has been used as a trope to explore ideas of dirt and place, moral inversion and reinforcement, disgust and taboo.

The book is an invitation to consider the continued relevance of Mary Douglas’ conceptualization of pollution and dirt as ‘matter out of place’ in relation to contemporary circumstances. Its ethnographic and theoretical contributions cover diverse contexts, ranging from Europe to Africa, the Caribbean, India and Outer Space.

Rebecca Lynch is Lecturer in Medical Anthropology at the University of Exeter. Her work explores the body and biomedicine, particularly bodily fluids and boundaries, bodily relations with non-humans (e.g., technologies), morality and biomedical categorization.

Introduction: Anthropological Ideas of Pollution Revisited: Categories, Values and the Legacy of Mary Douglas

Rebecca Lynch and Roland Littlewood

Part I: Bodies, Dirt and Place

Chapter 1. Three Achievements of Dirt: Disgust, Humour, Emphasis

Sjaak van der Geest

Appendix: Akan (Twi) Proverbs about ‘Shit’ and Related Terms

Chapter 2. Leaky Bodies and The Dynamic Relationality of Matter and Place

Rebecca Lynch

Chapter 3. ‘Yesterday’s Coffee Is Tomorrow’s Coffee’: The Body, Human Waste and Off-World Living

Aaron Parkhurst and David Jeevendrampillai

Part II: Notions of Purity and Moral Inversion

Chapter 4. Filth As Faith: Stories Of Antinomian Pollution

Roland Littlewood

Chapter 5. Orgasmic Excess and Orgasmic Alienation: Capitalism as Pollution

Ellie Reynolds

Chapter 6. Psychopharmacological Purity Doctrines and The Inertia of Cruelty: Using Mary Douglas and René Girard to Understand the War on Drugs

Joseph Calabrese

Part III: Disgust

Chapter 7. The Abominations of Leviticus Reconsidered: Anthropology and Psychology of Pollution

Simon Dein

Chapter 8. The Power of Taboo: Anthropological and Neurocognitive Perspectives

Quinton Deeley

Afterword: Radioactive Pollution in Nevada and Kazakhstan: A Non-Scientific Voice for Victims

André Singer

Index

Erscheint lt. Verlag	1.1.2025
Verlagsort	Oxford
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Ethik
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Allgemeines / Lexika
ISBN-10	1-80539-683-8 / 1805396838
ISBN-13	978-1-80539-683-3 / 9781805396833
Zustand	Neuware