Pollution In The Middle Ages

Today pollution has another meaning compared to how it was defined during the Middle Ages. Currently, pollution is the introduction into the environment of a substance that has harmful effects. Immediately one 's mind jumps to factory smoke or chemicals. However, for most people, a person judged to be simply out of place is not one of those definitions. Pollution was viewed not in its modern sense of bacteria or chemicals, but as in odd sense that confuses and contradicts cherished classifications. Gilman believes that it is this old definition of pollution that was used by those in fear to create a boundary from the “dirt.” And as soon as that wall was constructed imaginary or not, it would make everyone outside the wall as dangerous if they …show more content…
Douglas’s idea of pollution works at two levels. First are the social pressures that are used to influence one another’s behavior. One of the examples Douglas uses is the dying wish of an old man (Douglas, p. 3.) God was expecting them to follow the request of a now deceased person, if they didn’t follow they would be ostracized. The other form of pollution is of the mixing of social orders. Douglas uses the example of bodily fluids, especially sexual fluids to represent sexual order. The emphasis on sexual fluids is no coincidence; Douglas describes hybrids, the result of violating those orders, as beasts on the margins. The penalty of violation is that of the wrath of God. Specifically in this time period, the Black Death could be easily viewed as another disaster caused by those who did not yield to the ideal order to society. Those who are trying to explain the disease as a function of dirty ones encroaching the boundary allows for a false, but powerful sense of safety. If they believe the suffering is caused by the other, psychologically they are tricked into believing they are in no harm as long as that separation is maintained. That separation exists by the creation of a culture that defines what is disorder so to avoid it in favor of order. Douglas, through showing the process of “dirt” creation, is also …show more content…
Originally, the relatively unknown disease was assumed to be transmitted by homosexuals, heroin addicts, and Haitians. It was immediately directed towards the gay community even having the name Gay Related Immune Deficiency Syndrome (Gilman, p. 247.) The reality with AIDS was anyone was just as likely to acquire the disease: it was not exclusively those who were on the margins in the 1980’s. Gilman cites both perception of the increase of sexually transmitted diseases, and the growth of public awareness of homosexual emancipation, as creating the other mentality about those who had AIDS (Gilman, p. 247.) The obsession with sexual fluids during the Middle Ages was used to maintain order between those deemed pure and impure in the social hierarchy. Gilman quotes someone who refers to the cause of AIDS, “...as suffering an affliction of those who willfully violated the moral code [and] a punishment for sexual irresponsibility.” (Gilman, p. 248.) Class differences exist with AIDS as well: The heterosexual male is seen here as both the victim (of a polluted blood supply) as well as the source of pollution for his family. Homosexuals were seen by the greater population to be the cause and the source of pollution to heterosexual Americans. If one were to zoom out further at this time, Frenchman viewed the disease as an American born one, just like we viewed Haiti or now Africa. Geographically for