some of you might be interested in this article for some comparative ethnography of waste: the Journal of Material culture can be accessed for free via Bobst e-journal holdings....
Journal of Material Culture, Vol. 12, No. 3, 309-331 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1359183507081897
© 2007 SAGE Publications
The Materiality of Domestic Waste
The Recycled Cosmology of the Dogon of Mali
Laurence Douny
University College London, UK, l.douny@ucl.ac.uk
This article explores some of the multiple forms and uses of Dogon domestic waste, considering daily shared experiences of the matter. It examines the implicit meanings objectified in the materiality of, and the daily praxis associated with, rubbish that the Dogon select and allocate to particular places in and out of their `home container'. These are framed within a recycled cosmology that encompasses a plurality of entangled world-views that inform us about the life cycles of people, environment and society.