symbol and ritual - mary Douglas Flashcards
general
- Bridges earlier history and central concerns
- Contemporary insight into classification as a structure of ideas
- Society = made up of these structure
- Critical response to anthropology
o Broke away from single focused ethnography
o She rather offered a synthesis - Her concern = structure of ideas and relationship between social and mental structure
purity and impurity
- Purity and impurity = clues
o What you ought/ought not to do
o Systems of classification
♣ Purity = attraction
♣ Impurity = non-attraction - Ideas are systematic in nature. Contain own rational but ultimately part of greater system
- Example of bees and wasps
o We have classifications for insects just as we have classifications within society
o We have obligations to one (bees) and not to the other (wasps)
o We offer a justification for treatment of wasps
o Fate of insect = determined by classification
chapter 1
- Chapter 1 – History of Discipline
o Language of defilement and sacredness depends on situational context – you need to know the rules
o Must look at the objects of study and systems of thought together
chapter 2 general
o Religious rules form a symbolic system
o Religious systems are not an attempt at hygiene or superstition
o They deal with order. The world is socially created
o We have a contravention of order, ‘uncleanness is matter out of place’ (42)
♣ It is through precise regulations that we can understand how to maintain order
o All systems of thought create order and anomalies
♣ We are not consistent with our systems. They depend on context
chapter 2 societal order
o The key to disorder is the order which society upholds
♣ ‘In a chaos of shifting impressions, each of us constructs a stable world in which objects have recognisable shapes, are located in depth, and have permanence.’ (37)
♣ ‘Culture, in the sense of the public, standardised values of a community, mediates the experience of individuals. It provides in advance some basic categories, a positive pattern in which ideas and values are tidily ordered.’ (40)
2 - anomalies
o anomalies seem to threaten order
♣ but… anomalies can be controlled:
♣ they can be physically controlled (i.e. actively counteracted)
♣ anomalies ‘strengthen the definitions to which they do not conform’ (40) i.e. they reinforce the definition of things that are not anomalies
♣ ‘ambiguous symbols can be used in ritual for the same ends as they are used in poetry and mythology, to enrich meaning or to call attention to other levels of existence.’ (41)
o through recognising anomalies, we are able to gain a greater insight into the meaning of order and its importance in ritual
3
o Abominations in Leviticus. Section about purity and impurity
o Treats instruction based on systematic order of ideas
♣ Looks at system as a whole
o Views holiness as central to this question – related to prosperity and completeness
o Incompleteness associated with anomalies
o Applies ideas to animals
♣ Account of anomalies = based on boundaries
o Linked classification to social justice and living out the Kingdom of God
♣ Are animals oppressed by their anomalies?
4 and 5 - time
o Draws out lessons from historical chapter
o Must compare our classifications to those of others
o Distinction between following tradition and sincerity of thought – this is a feature of Judeo-Xianity
o Divides time into work/holiday etc. categories order our lives
♣ Ritual creates and controls experiences
4 and 5 - difference between west and other areas
o Where lies the difference between the Western world and other areas?
♣ Degree to which institutions of society overlap (view of Durkheim)
♣ West = principles are distinct e.g. the family is distinct from politics
• However, this is limited. E.g. we grow up with religion
♣ Other societies = may be integrated e.g. politics is assumed with religion
4 and 5 - two types of distinct mental structures
condensed societies
dispersed societies
4 and 5 - two types of distinct mental structures: condensed societies
• Seen in primitive societies
• Person-centred universe
• World revolves around observer interpreting experience
• Personality = ascribed to aspects of the world
• Material aspects reflect human classification
o E.g. landscapes are saturated with meaning
o E.g. planets determine fate
o E.g. evil leads to natural disasters
• Aspects of life are interconnected
• Universe intervenes in order to uphold order
• Primitive mind differentiates according to systems of thought
Practical priorities. No abstract truth
4 and 5 - two types of distinct mental structures: dispersed societies
- Learn functions and limits
- Causalities are impersonal in capital cycles etc.
- Science is impersonal and privileged by the West
- Can be self-aware but lack humanity
- Societies are mostly dealing with person-centred systems of thought
chapter 7
o Insight into manipulation of systems of thought e.g. body/tears/saliva etc. can be symbols
♣ What is the point of tears?
♣ What is their symbolism?
o Anomalies have power to create new initiatives
♣ E.g. those excluded in society can provide helpful perspectives
o Human beings manipulate classifications of thought to achieve own ends
o Anomalies etc. can compete with/complete eachother
chapter 10
o Concepts of dirt/defilement are culturally determined
o Dirt can be both destructive and creative
o Purity is figured as the objective, unchangeable ideal. But, forms of purity may be contradictory e.g. sexual purity
