ANT102H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Edward Burnett Tylor, Kula Ring, Marcel Mauss
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ANT102H5 Full Course Notes
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Ant102: lecture #7: culture as a system of symbols symbols used for thinking and communicating i. Mary douglas argument, categorical ambiguity: pollution, purity and classification. Famous study by the anthropologist mary douglas titled purity and danger. Forbidden creatures are anomalous(deviating) with respect to a system that categorizes creatures according to a three part distinction flesh, fish, fowl. 2-legged fowl fly with wings/scaly fish swim with fins/four-legged animals hop, jump or walk. Another example: animals which are cloven-hoofed but are not ruminant (mammals that are able to acquire nutrients from plant-based food by fermenting it in a specialized stomach prior to digestion), the pig and the camel. Note that this failure to conform to the 2 necessary criteria for defining cattle is the only reason given in the old testament for avoiding pig: nothing whatever is said about its dirty scavenging habits. Are expected from clean food in having one but not both of the defining characters of livestock.
