Dirt, Undress, and Difference

How transgressions of the body's surface--dirt and undress in many forms--take on cultural, political, and moral value.

A collection of essays that offer insights into the topics of bodily treatments and transgressions. It explores how various forms of transgression that are associated with the body's surface are drawn up into relations of power and inequality.

"A magnificent volume! It offers brand new perspectives on body politics and identity or subjectivity formation in the post-colonial world." —Dorothy Ko, Barnard College

While there is widespread interest in dress and hygiene as vehicles of cultural, moral, and political value, little scholarly attention has been paid to cross-cultural understandings of dirt and undress, despite their equally important role in the fashioning of identity and difference. The essays in this absorbing and thought-provoking collection contribute new insights into the neglected topics of bodily treatments and transgressions. In detailed ethnographic studies from around the world, the contributors recast assumptions about filth and nakedness, exploring how various forms of transgression associated with the body’s surface are drawn up into relations of power and inequality. They demonstrate imaginatively how body surfaces are powerfully mobilized in the making and unmaking of moral worlds.