THE SACRED IN EVERYDAY LIFE
WHAT, FOR ME, IS THE SACRED? TO BE MORE EXACT: WHAT DOES MY SACRED CONSIST OF? WHAT OBJECTS, PLACES, OR OCCASIONS AWAKE IN ME THAT MIXTURE OF FEAR AND ATTACHMENT ... CAUSED BY THE APPROACH OF SOMETHING SIMULTANEOUSLY ATTRACTIVE AND DANGEROUS, PRESTIGIOUS AND OUTCAST - THAT COMBINATION OF RESPECT, DESIRE, AND TERROR THAT WE TAKE AS THE PSYCHOLOGICAL SIGN OF THE SACRED? - MICHEL LEIRIS IN "THE SACRED IN EVERYDAY LIFE"
In each case the accent is placed on a loss that must be as great as possible in order for that activity to take on its true meaning - Georges Bataille
All gifts are symbols of inner states, and in this sense one can only give oneself; there is no other kind of giving - E. E. Evans-Pritchard
The chasm-cutting power of rivers in spate, or the storm and flash flood that create disastrous mudslides - Frank Salomon in Into the World of the Huacas
More and more people filled the towns and the accelerating increase in the growth of populations during the last few centuries continually provided fresh incitements to the formation of new and larger crowds - Elias Canetti
To let stories carry the burden of theory and analysis - Mick Taussig
The making of things by hand
IN THE NEWS
DANIELLA GANDOLFO
Since beginning to do fieldwork in Lima, my native city, I have been drawn to forms of sacred experience in everyday life. Whether through taboo and transgression, risk-taking and loss, or animal and self-sacrifice, my work examines the excess in events and actions that are at the limit of reasonableness and human sociality. I have written about transgression and politics in the context of urban renewal; urban policy and the underclasses; risk, waste, and sovereign power in extra-legal markets; and the role of animality in social life and ritual.