La ciudad circular

Overview & Synopsis

The circular city refers to death routes and ways of presence in Buenos Aires at the turn of the 19th century, and examines, on the base of ritual directions, the way that death circulated and transformed urban scenes and its temporalities. Between the years 1868 and 1903, a group of social actors took active part on the transformation of funerary processes, that were installed since Colonial times. With the purpose of setting a moral and hygienic control over the city, they argued, and occasionally disputed the institutional control of death to Catholic religion. Even though the circle is a common imagen to Western liturgy since early times, that metaphoric figure never seems to be complete and perfect: it may be interrupted sometimes, folded, deformed, overlapped, or even tangled. This book explores death spaces and territories, understanding them as acted scenes, rather material and symbolical, diverse and dynamic, intending to contribute to Buenos Aires Urban History.