The City at Its Limits : Taboo, Transgression, and Urban Renewal in Lima

In 1996, against the backdrop of Alberto Fujimori’s increasingly corrupt national politics, an older woman in Lima, Peru—part of a group of women street sweepers protesting the privatization of the city’s cleaning services—stripped to the waist in full view of the crowd that surrounded her. Lima had just launched a campaign to revitalize its historic districts, and this shockingly transgressive act was just one of a series of events that challenged the norms of order, cleanliness, and beauty that the renewal effort promoted. __The City at Its Limits__ employs a novel and fluid interweaving of essays and field diary entries as Daniella Gandolfo analyzes the ramifications of this act within the city’s conflicted history and across its class divisions. She builds on the work of Georges Bataille to explore the relation between taboo and transgression, while Peruvian novelist and anthropologist José María Arguedas’s writings inspire her to reflect on her return to her native city in movingly intimate detail. With its multiple perspectives—personal, sociological, historical, and theoretical—__The City at Its Limits__ is a pioneering work on the cutting edge of ethnography. In 1996, against the backdrop of Alberto Fujimori's increasingly corrupt national politics, an older woman in Lima, Peru - part of a group of women street sweepers protesting the privatization of the city's cleaning services - stripped to the waist in full view of the crowd that surrounded her. Lima had just launched a campaign to revitalize its historic districts, and this shockingly transgressive act was just one of a series of events that challenged the norms of order, cleanliness, and beauty that the renewal effort promoted. The City at Its Limits employs a novel and fluid interweaving of essays and field diary entries as Daniella Gandolfo analyzes the ramifications of this act within the city's conflicted history and across its class divisions. She builds on the work of Georges Bataille to explore the relation between taboo and transgression, while Peruvian novelist and anthropologist Jose Maria Arguedas' writings inspire her to reflect on her return to her native city in movingly intimate detail. With its multiple perspectives - personal, sociological, historical, and theoretical - The City at Its Limits is a pioneering work on the cutting edge of ethnography In 1996, against the backdrop of Alberto Fujimoris increasingly corrupt national politics, an older woman in Lima, Perupart of a group of women street sweepers protesting the privatization of the citys cleaning servicesstripped to the waist in full view of the crowd that surrounded her. Lima had just launched a campaign to revitalize its historic districts, and this shockingly transgressive act was just one of a series of events that challenged the norms of order, cleanliness, and beauty that the renewal effort promoted. The City at Its Limits employs a novel and fluid interweaving of essays and field diary entries as Daniella Gandolfo analyzes the ramifications of this act within the citys conflicted history and across its class divisions. She builds on the work of Georges Bataille to explore the relation between taboo and transgression, while Peruvian novelist and anthropologist Jos Mara Arguedass writings inspire her to reflect on her return to her native city in movingly intimate detail. With its multiple perspectivespersonal, sociological, historical, and theoretical The City at Its Limits is a pioneering work on the cutting edge of ethnography. In 1996, against the backdrop of Alberto Fujimori's increasingly corrupt national politics, an older woman in Lima, Peru—part of a group of women street sweepers protesting the privatization of the city's cleaning services—stripped to the waist in full view of the crowd that surrounded her. Lima had just launched a campaign to revitalize its historic districts, and this shockingly transgressive act was just one of a series of events that challenged the norms of order, cleanliness, and beauty that the renewal effort promoted. In this book, the author employs an interweaving of essays and field diary entries as she analyzes the ramifications of this act within the city's conflicted history and across its class divisions. She builds on the work of Georges Bataille to explore the relation between taboo and transgression, while Peruvian novelist and anthropologist José María Arguedas's writings inspire her to reflect on her return to her native city in movingly intimate detail. With its multiple perspectives—personal, sociological, historical, and theoretical—this book is a pioneering work on the cutting edge of ethnography With Its Multiple Perspectives - Personal, Sociological Historical, And Theoretical - 'the City At Its Limits' Is A Pioneering Work On The Cutting Edge Of Ethnography. Introduction: Taboo -- First Diary -- Beauty -- Second Diary -- Filth -- Third Diary -- Nakedness -- Last Entry. Daniella Gandolfo. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 239-249) And Index.