Purity and Dirt as Social Constructions: Environmental Health in an Urban Shantytown of Lagos

The focus of this article, on everyday life management, emerges from a theoretical discussion about culturally specific attitudes to environmental health. Local perceptions of purity and dirt in an urban shantytown of Lagos, Nigeria, are examined through a case study of the Amukoko urban district. The qualitative data is from two fieldwork phases carried out in 1998 and 2001 in Lagos, consisting of eleven in-depth interviews, eight focus group discussions and participatory observations among Yoruba women and men. In different communities, perceptions of purity and dirt are not self-evident in terms of their meaning, but reflect the commonly shared values and moral codes of the community. Ou…