The limits of urban anthropology are as fuzzy as those of the very cities we live in. Urbanism as a way of life, the diversity of patterns for residence and housing, the predicaments of community and sociability, familial and residential networks, social movements: these are some of the main topics on which this discipline has focused, always through its distinctive ethnographic and comparative approach.
Symbols in the city, introduces the reader to this field combining theoretical discussions and ethnographic cases. The contested role of “ritual” in secularized societies; a local pilgrimage in Madrid for the blessing of pets; the political demonstrations waving at México during the post-salinist era; and the lack of a well-defined role for the city fieldworker –an intruder at home-, are the pretexts used for illuminating the potential of symbolic analysis in the contemporary urban context.