Part I. The philosophical landscape of 'clean' and 'dirty'. 1. Dirt in philosophy and culture ; 2. A brief history of dirt in philosophy ; 3. Dirty and clean: main distinctions ; 4. Reductionism and the role of science
Part II. 'Dirty' and 'forbidden': anthropological reductionism and its limits. 5. Ritual, disorder and pollution ; 6. Repressing the 'other': the myth of abjection ; 7. The civilizing process ; 8. Ambiguities of self-discipline and the campaign for civilization
Part III. Settling accounts with matter. 9. Between facts and practices ; 10. To dress and to keep ; 11. What is mine and what is someone else's.