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Book Reviews on...

Purity and Danger by Mary Douglas
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Purity and Danger

by Mary Douglas

Douglas says that in order to make sense of society, cultures like to group things. When objects fall outside those groups they are either reviled or revered. The great thing for me is that I could take her theory back to the ancient world and use it in my studies. It was so liberating.

Recommendations from our site

” for me and still for many of my students, it’s a book that really opened my eyes. It showed me that you could theorize about things that you had always taken for granted and thought didn’t need explaining. Douglas set out to defamiliarize our own culture. One of her favourite party pieces is she goes through all the dietary prohibitions in Leviticus. She said, look at these carefully and you will see there’s a logic to them. What’s being prohibited in terms of eating is very often those animals or foodstuffs which don’t fit into a set category. For example, pigs don’t fall into any particular category because of their feet. In order to make sense of society, cultures like to group things. When objects fall outside those groups they are either reviled or revered.” Read more...

The best books on Ancient History in Modern Life

Mary Beard, Classicist

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