berghahn New York · Oxford

Contents

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

Matter Out of Place

Anthropological Explorations of Bodies, Dirt and Morality

Edited by Rebecca Lynch, Joseph Calabrese, and Roland Littlewood

Afterword by André Singer

204 pages, bibliog., index

ISBN 978-1-80539-683-3 Hb Published (January 2025)

eISBN 978-1-80539-684-0 eBook

Details

“The chapters are engaging and of an ambitious nature. I found the collection to be highly readable and also liked the array of different topics and perspectives covered.” • Kirsten Bell, Imperial College

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.

Roland Littlewood is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology and Psychiatry at University College London. He is a former president of the RAI and has published eight books.

Joseph Calabrese is Reader in Medical Anthropology at University College London. He has undertaken fieldwork in the Navajo Nation, Haiti, the USA, and Bhutan.

Subject: Anthropology (General) Anthropology of Religion Sociology

Area:

LC: GN471.4 .M38 2025

BISAC: SOC002010 SOCIAL SCIENCE/Anthropology/Cultural & Social; PHI005000 PHILOSOPHY/Ethics & Moral Philosophy; SOC005000 SOCIAL SCIENCE/Customs & Traditions