Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concept of Pollution and TabooIn Purity and Danger Mary Douglas identifies the concern for purity as a key theme at the heart of every society. 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. The book has been hugely influential in many areas of debate - from religion to social theory. But perhaps its most important role is to offer each reader a new explanation of why people behave in the way they do. 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. |
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abomination action adultery ambiguous animals anomaly anthropologists assumptions avoidance Azande baraka behaviour Bemba blood bodily body caste chapter Claude Lévi-Strauss Cloven-hoofed contradiction contrast cooked cosmology cult curse danger death defilement dietary Dinka dirt distinction divine Durkheim Enga Evans-Pritchard evil example expect experience express external fear female Frazer Havik holiness human husband hygiene idea impurity incest individual interpretation Israelites kind Lele Leviticus Levy-Bruhl live magic Maimonides male Marcel Mauss margins marriage means moral nature Ndembu Nuer Old Testament organisation pangolin pattern political pollution beliefs pollution rules primitive culture primitive religion principle problem protect purity recognise relation religious rites ritual Robertson Smith role sacred sacrifice sense separation sex pollution sexual intercourse social structure social system society sorcery spiritual power symbolic taboo theme things thought tion Trickster unclean universe village whole wife witch witchcraft woman women Yurok