Cleanness, Pollution and Disgust in Modern Industrial Societies: The Brazilian Case
Author(s)
Neves, Livia Martins Pinheiro
Abstract
The concept of pollution has long been central to theoretical discussions within the traditional anthropological literature. However, this has mainly been within the context of primitive or developing societies and largely concerned the links between pollution and religion and the sacred. In this article, I re-examine the importance that the concept of pollution has for modern industrial societies. I take as my ethnographic reference Brazil, with specific focus on cleaning and laundering practices. Besides being an important criterion in the organization of everyday life, the criterion of pollution has been very resilient to technological changes. Although modern industrial products are available to Brazilian women, these products do not replace pollution criteria with practical and efficient criteria. On the contrary, the use of domestic technologies has helped to refine the concept of ‘pollution’, introducing new forms of classification and separation.
