ANTH 209 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Kashrut, Mary Douglas, Henri Hubert

• School: McGill University
• Department: Anthropology
• Course: ANTH 209
• Professor: Katherine Lemons

Document Summary

All societies order themselves in relation to symbols, which refer to what they find meaningful. All societies have systems of classification and they all have rituals. Dirt is a matter out of place . Spreading the dirt where it shouldn"t be. People create moral systems (what is good and what is bad) based on their concepts of impurity. Ritual (secular or religious) is something that people engage in for the purpose of upholding the order of the world. Against evolutionary views of human difference, she argued that societies are all ultimately based on systems of classification. Jewish dietary laws and prohibition as meditation. Brings symbols of god"s order into everyday life. When you participate, you gain an understanding of what you are a part of. Birthday party: celebrating the day of birth with a day of death. Some religions function on the basis of sacrificial activity. Difficult to reconcile the demand for religion and demand for ethics.