Citations out of place (Respond to this article at http

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Bibliographic Data

ID11495271
AuthorsRichard Fardon (SOAS University of London, corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume29
Issue1
Pages25-27
Publication date2013-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAnthropology Today (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0268-540X • E-ISSN: 1467-8322
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1467-8322.12007
OpenAlexW4246129379
LanguageEN
Citations received12
References cited2

Mary Douglas wrote that she derived the phrase ‘dirt is matter out of place’ from Lord Chesterfield, but the authorship of something close to this phrase was more likely Lord Palmerston's, and it arose in the context of policy concerns over urban sewage and rural fertilizer. The phrase was picked up immediately, made more abstract, and applied in a variety of contexts that drew together moral judgements with considerations of hygiene. Hence the phrase had a complex authorship and usage that had already prepared it for the uses to which Douglas would put it, and its history shows how the aphoristic formulation of a widely held notion can provoke thought by, in twenty‐first century terms, going viral

Archaeology · Cartography · Context (archaeology · Dirt · Geography · Linguistics · Phrase · Sociology · Variety (cybernetics · Computer Science · Geographies of human-animal interactions · History · Philosophy · Water Governance and Infrastructure · Artificial Intelligence

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