Not simply because it is
undignified, Bataille has indicated that one’s social position is measured in
her distance from dirt, but also because of its ambiguity, its contagiousness.
One cannot poke one’s nose into it, even if only figuratively, and keep the
distance necessary for ‘objective representation’. Trash is cultural, quite
often, personal matter. As sometimes is alluded, it is ‘the other side’ of
culture, a representation, a reflection of ourselves, of our society and
culture, but a reflection which is often too intimate and too revealing. We
thus choose not to recognize our reflection in it. In trash we appear to
ourselves as Other. The study of trash is first of all a remark on humans, on
culture.
The structuralist definition of trash is mostly derived from Mary
Douglas’ analysis of ritual purity and pollution and associates trash with
structural margins and a-structural Other. It also offers insights into the
relative and processual nature of trash. Trying to capture the particular
relation of trash to the consumer society I have mostly relied on Jean
Baudrillard’s vision of the postmodern society.