'Matter out of place.' The original dirty book.

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Product Description

In this classic work Mary Douglas identifies the concern for pirity as a key theme at the heart of every society. She reveals its wide-ranging impact on our attitudes tp society, values, cosmology and knowledge.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15574 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

Review
`Professor Douglas writes gracefully, lucidly and polemically. She continually 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.' - New Society

'Professor Douglas' book sparkles with intellectual life and is characterised by a concern to understand ... A rare and exciting spectacle of a mind at work.' - Times Literary Supplement

From the Back Cover

With a new preface by the author

‘Purity and Danger... shattered my assumptions on just about everything... this dazzling book concentrates on what has always fascinated me: the danger and joys of being out of place.’ – Silvia Rodgers, The Sunday Times

In 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. First published: 1966.

About the Author
Mary Douglas (1921-). One of the most distinguished anthropologists of modern times. Natural Symbols, another of her major works, is also available in Routledge Classics.

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Customer Reviews

A seminal work in anthropological theory
Few anthropological works have had as profound an impact as Mary Douglas's Purity and Danger. In it she outlines an anthropological theory of purity and pollution that has become a central part of what is otherwise an often conflicted and vaguely-defined subject area. This is not to say Douglas's work has never been criticized, but that many of her ideas are now so deeply ingrained in anthropological thinking that they simply appear as a given to students learning them today, whereas they revolutionized the interpretation of so-called "primitive" thought.

A reader encountering Douglas's ideas for the first time may be surprised to find that "dirt" is not intrinsically dirty, but is, rather, "matter out of place". This concept epitomizes what we might call the "anthroplogical mindset": a close attention to cultural interpretations -- and the specificity thereof.

The book begins with a sketch of European historical materials whose relation to some of the other issues surveyed is not clearly elucidated. However, this minor writer's fault can be forgiven, and the reader is encouraged to focus on Douglas's comparative analysis of sources as varied as her fieldwork among the Lele, and her (now canonical) reading of the book of Leviticus.

Beyond her addition to the canon of anthropological theory, Douglas also deserves praise for her willingness to critique her own material. The preface she wrote for the Routledge Classics paperback includes a reconsideration of her work on Leviticus that entirely justifies publishing the new edition.