www.quondam.com/47/4721v.htm

critical condition
March 1967

of other spaces
Of Other Spaces: Utopias and Heterotopias Michel Foucault

1 b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Fifth principle. Heterotopias always presuppose a system of opening and closing that both isolates them and makes them penetrable. In general, the heterotopic site is not freely accessible like a public place. Either the entry is compulsory, as in the case of entering a barracks or a prison, or else the individual has to submit to rites and purifications. To get in one must have a certain permission and make certain gestures. Moreover, there are even heterotopias that are entirely consecrated to these activities of purification—purification that is partly religious and partly hygienic, such as the hammin of the Moslems, or else purification that appears to be purely hygienic, as in Scandinavian saunas.

««««

»»»»