Contact us if you experience any difficulty logging in. Ronjon Paul Datta. Partly really good and interesting, partly not so much. Gabrys and other waste theorists turn to Douglas as a starting point for thinking about the relationship between dirt and systems and then variously amend her conclusions and criticize her methods. Please check you selected the correct society from the list and entered the user name and password you use to log in to your society website. Mary Douglas criticises and debunks the claims of Robertson-Smith and Sir James Frazer that so-called primitive cultures were, collectively and individually, unable to distinguish between the 'sacred and the profane'. Welcome back. But it is impossible to have social relations without symbolic acts.”, “It is the existence of an angry person in an interstitial position which is dangerous, and this has nothing to do with the particular intentions of the person.”, TLS The Hundred Most Influential Books Since the Second World War, Mariah Carey Is Telling Her Own Story (and Recommending Books). In lively and lucid prose she explains its relevance for every reader by revealing its wide-ranging impact on our attitudes to society, values, cosmology and knowledge. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click on download. ‘So much choice and no choice at all’: A socio-psychoanalytic interpretation of c... View or download all content the institution has subscribed to. In that regard Purity and Danger is well within her wheelhouse. By the time the book ends, with a discussion of the sacred and the dirty, one has gained much wisdom and theory about the subject. Why kiss away tears but not snot? by Routledge, Purity and Danger: An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. Wit. "Taxonomy and Taboo"; Frazer is out, but Freud is in. I knew that this was not the topic of the book but I was hoping perhaps for some transferability. With a specially commissioned introduction by the author which assesses the continuing significance of the work thirty-five years on, this Routledge Classics edition will ensure that Purity and Danger continues to challenge and question well into the new millennium. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click on download. Unlike Moore Jr.’s work on purity, Douglas’ theory differs enough from Freud to be considered a separate conceptualization. Alas, the ideas within were not transferable in any meaningful manner I could make out. However, Douglas does recognise the vital role both scholars played as pioneers of Anthropology as a discipline and attributes many of their misunderstandings to zeitgeist and co. A classic work that revolutionised how Anthropology dealt with concepts of ritual pollution and purity. Purity and Danger, first published in 1966, justly deserves its place as a classic, and the. Book Review: Purity and Danger. Yet this analytical framework exceeds her own application of it to examples of societies maintaining traditional boundaries and hierarchies. still, an interesting and insightful exploration of a previously untouched subject. But perhaps its most important role … For one thing, she argues, things that cannot be neatly categorized into some preexisting and understandable category, are often considered impure /taboo/ dangerous. Interesting concepts of the interplay between the taboo and the holy, morality and cleanliness, purity and danger; how societies frame their worlds. Mary Douglas criticises and debunks the claims of Robertson-Smith and Sir James Frazer that so-called primitive cultures were, collectively and individually, unable to distinguish between the 'sacred and the profane'. I have read and accept the terms and conditions, View permissions information for this article, Click the button below for the full-text content, 24 hours online access to download content. By continuing to browse Data filled, wide-ranging in its scope, and profound in its meditations on the nature of man and his taboos, Mary Douglas's "Purity and Danger" is an important overview of the issue of prohibitions and the sacred from a classic source. September 12th 2002 Find an opposition upon which some kind of subordinating value is founded, demonstrate that each side of the opposition ne. It's a must have for anyone wanting to explore purity/pollution taboos. Refresh and try again. Sign in here to access free tools such as favourites and alerts, or to access personal subscriptions, If you have access to journal content via a university, library or employer, sign in here, Research off-campus without worrying about access issues. How do we learn to live with some filth and yet recoil at other dirt? A classic work that revolutionised how Anthropology dealt with concepts of ritual pollution and purity. In lively and lucid prose she explains its relevance for every reader by revealing its wide-ranging impact on our attitudes to society, values, cosmology and knowledge. She follows Emile Durkheim in defining dirt as that which is out of its place (ketchup in fine in the bottle or on the plate, but not on my shirt). But perhaps its most important role is to offer each reader a new explanation of why people behave in the way they do. I mean, what does one really say about a classic of structuralist anthropology? A great account of human nature. So, while some of the book has been superseded by more recent research, the book itself still offers a worthwhile insight into how purity and danger plays itself out in cultures both modern and primitive. Great for getting discussions going @ uni lectures. Douglas argues that many of the taboos regarding "polluted" or unclean objects in various societies have more to do with moral and symbolic impurity rather than actual hygiene. Access to society journal content varies across our titles. In other words - pure analytical win. Professor Douglas makes points which illuminate matters in the philosophy of religion and the philosophy of science and help to show the rest of us just why and how anthropology has become a fundamentally intellectual discipline. The book has been hugely influential in many areas of debate - from religion to social theory. Readable, with occasional humorous comments from the author. Still, I found the book very eyeopening and I can imagine that the theory of pollution is something that can be pretty much used in any essay on cultural anthropology. With all the inherent limitations of the field and the fact that quite a bit of this is dated, it's still a good start at thinking of purity independent of hygiene, morality, and the other ways modernists have tried to make sense of expurgation rituals. The e-mail addresses that you supply to use this service will not be used for any other purpose without your consent. If you have access to a journal via a society or association membership, please browse to your society journal, select an article to view, and follow the instructions in this box.

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