CAS AN 101 Lecture Notes - Mary Douglas, Food And Drink Prohibitions, Gennep
18 Feb 2014
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What is pollution: smog, toxic waste, the byproduct of human activity, pollution in a symbolic or a ritual context: defilement. Adulterating the nature of whatever it is. The violation has to do what is considered normal, natural, sacred. Is we have something that can be out of place. How does this relate to ideas about the rules of what fits in a system. What kinds of examples does she use: what kinds of things are out of place, touching the dead, breaking social circles, dietary laws. Pork or pigs: dirty meat, they roll around in their own filth. Shellfish: can make people sick, people may have gotten sick at one point because it was not prepared correctly, red tide. It stuck: mary douglas doesn"t buy that. Pigs are fat and short and rough: coarse hair, pig used to describe some bad traits in humans, pigs don"t fit into a cattle system, they are matter out of place, they are pollutive.
