Silence about the Killing. Ethnography of a Slaughterhouse
Are you already subscribed?
Login to check
whether this content is already included on your personal or institutional subscription.
Original version
This article is also available in
french.
This original file can be downloaded free of charge by acquiring the translated version.
Abstract
The study, conducted in a French slaughterhouse, focuses on the practices of two groups of workers: those who carry out the killing, and the rest of the employees. Symbolic as well as spatial boundaries between them are clearly demarcated and enforced. Silence and embarrassment surround the act of killing, a taboo which is nonetheless the main activity of the slaughterhouse. A code of implicit norms grows around it, which appears to regulate interactions within the environment.
Keywords
- Slaughterhouse
- killing
- boundaries
- implicit norms
