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Title: Purity and Danger: An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo by Mary Douglas ISBN: 0-415-28995-5 Publisher: Routledge Pub. Date: 15 November, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.6 (5 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Absolutely great
Comment: "Purity and Danger" is one of the best anthropology books...PERIOD. You will never look at taboos/pollution/dirt the same way again, after you read this book. Well, let me rephrase that: if this book doesn't give you a new insight into these matters, it is because you have already been exposed to Douglas's ideas and were not aware of it. I think that this book is essential for anyone in the social sciences. It is a great read, and is very powerful. Social science at its best.
Rating: 5
Summary: Clean or dirty? Your culture decides.
Comment: All cultures have definite ideas about what is clean and what is dirty. Drawing from previous hallmark works on how cultures make classifications (Levi-Strauss's The Raw and the Cooked, etc.), Douglas makes clear and concise arguments about the use of ritual in separating that which is considered pure from what's considered unclean. The convincing argument she makes is that such rituals and clearly defined boundaries of purity reinforce a society's common definitions, increasing its unity and therefore its ability to work together to succeed. Additionally, Douglas alludes to Malinowski's anxiety-reduction theories of totems to theorize that clear definitions of right and wrong and of clean and unclean reduce the stress in a given society, helping everyone to know who they are and what is expected of them. In fact, she feels, a lack of such distinctions can be fatal to the integrity of a group. If everyone went on their own deciding what was good or bad, there would be chaos - the danger alluded to in the title.
A highlight of the book is the chapter titled "Abominations of Leviticus", in which she interprets the Jewish divisions between kosher and graev (no pork, no mixing of milk and meat, etc) in a cultural context. Here she shows that the Levites divided "pure" animals (deer, cattle, sheep, goats, etc) from those considered "mixed" (pig, rabbit, woodchuck), or having an undesireable combination of traits rather than just being dirty in aspect, as is commonly believed.
Rating: 3
Summary: Interesting but narrow theory
Comment: Whenever I read about an anthropologist's, psychologist's or anyone else's speculations about religion's function in society, I always feel that what I am actually reading about is how the author himself/herself perceives them to function. (Or perhaps how they function for the author.)
In a way this is a good thing because each new theory gives us another aspect of the purpose and use of religion and since the author is human (let's hope), each theory is also a part of the truth. Unfortunately, it is also incomplete. Douglas offers us a fascinating hypothesis about religious taboos being used to support every society's structure, but I think that is a small part of their function. Hopefully, many more conjectures about religious taboos and religion itself will continue to be explored and probably all of them will be somewhat true. The whole story will never be known, but at least we keep adding to the possibilities.
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Title: The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure (Lewis Henry Morgan Lectures) by Victor Witter Turner ISBN: 0202011909 Publisher: Aldine de Gruyter Pub. Date: April, 1995 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Natural Symbols: Explorations in Cosmology by Mary Douglas ISBN: 0415138264 Publisher: Routledge Pub. Date: 04 December, 1996 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: Leviticus As Literature by Mary Douglas ISBN: 0199244197 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: May, 2001 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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Title: Risk and Culture: An Essay on the Selection of Technical and Environmental Dangers by Mary Douglas, Aaron B. Wildavsky ISBN: 0520050630 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: November, 1983 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: The Sacred and Profane: The Nature of Religion by Mircea Eliade, Willard Trask ISBN: 015679201X Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: October, 1968 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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