“In chasing dirt, in papering, decorating, tidying we are not governed by anxiety to escape disease, but are positively re-ordering our environment, making it conform to an idea” (Douglas, P.2). In the book Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo by Mary Douglas, the influential anthropologist looks at the idea of pollution and taboo in the Congo. After analyzing the pollution-conscience society as well as using previous background knowledge, Douglas is able to theorize that although the idea of cleanliness or dirt avoidance, is not new or unreasonable it is just a way that we relate form to function. In this same way, “we should interpret primitive purification and prophylaxis in the same light” (p.2). Douglas’ argument develops throughout the ten chapters: Ritual Uncleanness, Secular Defilement, The Abominations of Leviticus, Magic and Miracle, Primitive Worlds, Powers and Dangers, External Boundaries, Internal Lines, The System at War With Itself, and The System Shattered and Renewed. Douglas uses these ten chapters, to focus on different aspects of society, and the means of which whether primitive or modern, society sub-consciously places precedent on tasks, practices, or traditions, in regards to cleanliness or purity, that outsiders may view as …show more content…
Douglas moves away from the view that primitive people expect rites to produce an immediate intervention in their affairs, and instead adheres that rituals in regular sequence have the effect to create and control experience. Societies share certain rituals and traditions no matter where you go, they’re what gives it the characteristics we need to distinguish between