REL 105 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Book Of Leviticus, Mary Douglas, American Anthropologist
16 Feb 2017
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Religion provides us with a very intense classification system: symbolic (classification) system. She mentions the caste system in india: they have the tiers of the pyramid, they can only marry within their caste. Untouchable lowest: the caste system makes a hierarchy. It has been an integral system of india for hundreds of years. She wondered by people accept this system because it is unfair for the lower groups of people. She focuses on pollution: people who are in the caste system are affected by pollution. Food made by the lower class is looked at polluting by the higher classes. The lower class is looked at as dirty to the upper classes. People in the west don"t understand the caste system: we think dirtiness is solely based on hygiene. The people of india think the system is full of beliefs and religion: our way to perceive dirt is rational because it is based on medicine.
