35 pages • 1 hour read
Mary DouglasA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
It is not true that primitive cultures confuse the sacred and the unclean. However, it is true that primitive religions often sacralize dirt and uncleanness, which they had rejected. The search for purity can become paradoxical or contradictory, as when sexual purity is interpreted to mean no contact between the sexes. In order to avoid such contradiction, societies often try to include dirt and uncleanness within a coherent philosophy or worldview. Douglas terms this a “pessimistic” religion, as opposed to an “optimistic” one, the latter of which attempts to evade or ignore the problem of dirt and uncleanness.
Douglas cites tribal death rituals where the reality of death is confronted and even embraced. In these cases, ritual harnesses the power of pollution for good (199). This contradicts the assumption of some anthropologists that primitive societies try to deny the reality of evil or death.
In the final chapter, Douglas considers the question posed at the start of the book: whether the sacred and the unclean are ever confused, as some early anthropologists maintained. Douglas rejects this, though she notes that religions do often sacralize uncleanness. She therefore rephrases the question: In what ways can