Summary Of Mary Douglas's Purity And Danger

Mary Douglas was a British anthropologist and Oxford graduate. At Oxford, she was influenced by E.E. Evans-Pritchard. Evans-Pritchard’s work, in contrast to Mary, followed structural functionalism (Guest 46). One of her most famous writings was Purity and Danger written in 1966. Mary begins her Chapter, The Abomination of Leviticus by stating “Defilement is never an isolated event...For the only way in which pollution ideas make sense is in reference to a total structure of thought whose keystone, boundaries, margins, and internal lines are held in relation by rituals of separation.” (51) Douglas’ interpretation of the Book of Leviticus seems convincing. She describes the Book of Leviticus as values (Guest 39) that are practiced, written to maintain holy and to have a closer …show more content…
The religions practices mentioned in the writings, have evidence of being practiced today. Although Mary Douglas’ writings entitled The Abomination of Leviticus is well supported, she lacks to express her field work experience with Islam and Judaism. Discussing clean versus unclean, Mary relates diet to religious rites and doctrines. Diet coincided with holiness. This explains how one’s relationship to god regulates daily life. In the Book of Leviticus, a lengthy list of animals and storage of food is given not to consume, touch,

Zesati| 2 hunt or prepare for religious offering. Douglas gives passages from religious writings and interprets them for the reader as evidence supporting her statements. It is not made clear what experience Mary has regarding the topic. Douglas does not physically participate in a participant observation (Guest 82). After reading a biography written by Oxford college, it seems Douglas gathered her information by reading research The Book of Leviticus. Douglas argues, “To be holy is to be whole, to be one; holiness is unity, integrity,