The Anthropologist Within
Less than a year after graduation, I find myself thirsting for a good opportunity to overanalyze the hell out of simple things. This would explain why I read (for fun) an article that pitted whole-language against a phonics-based system to measure their success in the acquisition of literacy skills. It would also explain why I'm thinking about trash cans.
Jossip posted a sighting of Sex and the City actress Cynthia Nixon snatching a ziplock bag out of a trash can after it was thrown away by another woman. Naturally, she places her son's half-eaten sandwich within. Delicious. (Thanks for the hepatitis, mom!)
My knee jerk response was, "That's disgusting!" but then my SuperSecretAnthropologistSense went into full gear and the comment became the question, "But what makes it disgusting?" Allow me to mine my memories for the wise words of Mary Douglas!
In Purity and Danger, anthropologist Mary Douglas establishes a Structuralist view of the way we organize our world. Since we perceive the world as a structure, that which is outside the structure is "dirty" or "taboo." Think about this. A shoe on your foot is harmless. A shoe on your pillow, however, is filthy.
How did we suddenly reassign meaning to this shoe? By looking at its surrounding context. The shoe by itself carries no inherent value; it is given significance by its position in our socially-constructed culture.
Hereby, forthwith and all that other stuff, Cynthia Nixon's dumpster dive is not a particulary unconscionable act of Bad Mothering. The whole incident can be broken down into many parts, which can be each examined as bit players in our evaluation of the event.
Part 1: What was initially in the bag? It's unlikely that we'll ever know, but it's safe to say that any residue, stickiness, or other ephemera attached to the bag would render it "unusable", especially as a container of somethinig edible. A ziplock bag that had contained a small collection of unused matchbooks? Not so bad.
Part 2. What did the garbage can look like? I've lived in NY on and off for about five years. I have seen the horrors of public trash cans. And the trash can itself it a tainted object in our culture, serving as a repository for all the things we no longer desire. Objects that come into close contact with it become tainted by association.
Part 2. What was in the trash can? Content is important. Would you rather dig your hand through a garbage can full of paper (neat, contained, well-defined edges) or a garbage can full of picnic debric (disorderly, decaying, a variety of textures).
(I know I know, you'd leave it for the intern. Unless you are the intern, and then it would just suck to be you.)
Part 3. Where in the trash can did it fall? On the top, you got a good Five Seconds of Regret to pluck it out. The lower it drifts, the more likely it is that you,'ve "given it to the universe" to quote my sister.
And you cannot take back from the universe.
Jossip posted a sighting of Sex and the City actress Cynthia Nixon snatching a ziplock bag out of a trash can after it was thrown away by another woman. Naturally, she places her son's half-eaten sandwich within. Delicious. (Thanks for the hepatitis, mom!)
My knee jerk response was, "That's disgusting!" but then my SuperSecretAnthropologistSense went into full gear and the comment became the question, "But what makes it disgusting?" Allow me to mine my memories for the wise words of Mary Douglas!
In Purity and Danger, anthropologist Mary Douglas establishes a Structuralist view of the way we organize our world. Since we perceive the world as a structure, that which is outside the structure is "dirty" or "taboo." Think about this. A shoe on your foot is harmless. A shoe on your pillow, however, is filthy.
How did we suddenly reassign meaning to this shoe? By looking at its surrounding context. The shoe by itself carries no inherent value; it is given significance by its position in our socially-constructed culture.
Hereby, forthwith and all that other stuff, Cynthia Nixon's dumpster dive is not a particulary unconscionable act of Bad Mothering. The whole incident can be broken down into many parts, which can be each examined as bit players in our evaluation of the event.
Part 1: What was initially in the bag? It's unlikely that we'll ever know, but it's safe to say that any residue, stickiness, or other ephemera attached to the bag would render it "unusable", especially as a container of somethinig edible. A ziplock bag that had contained a small collection of unused matchbooks? Not so bad.
Part 2. What did the garbage can look like? I've lived in NY on and off for about five years. I have seen the horrors of public trash cans. And the trash can itself it a tainted object in our culture, serving as a repository for all the things we no longer desire. Objects that come into close contact with it become tainted by association.
Part 2. What was in the trash can? Content is important. Would you rather dig your hand through a garbage can full of paper (neat, contained, well-defined edges) or a garbage can full of picnic debric (disorderly, decaying, a variety of textures).
(I know I know, you'd leave it for the intern. Unless you are the intern, and then it would just suck to be you.)
Part 3. Where in the trash can did it fall? On the top, you got a good Five Seconds of Regret to pluck it out. The lower it drifts, the more likely it is that you,'ve "given it to the universe" to quote my sister.
And you cannot take back from the universe.
posted by etre_productif at 10:15 PM
2 comments
