Essay Example on Mary Douglas as it is one of the few books in the genre that talks about the Anthropology

Cultural theory is one of the areas is one of the areas in which one does not get to see the lot of work The same is the case with the work of the Mary Douglas as it is one of the few books in the genre that talks about the anthropology and the cultural theories that are witnessed in the region It is one of the more well known works of the author Keeping in mind some of her work during this paper it would be seen that how the concept of the purity is discussed in her work Context and Meaning of the Book One of the key things that are discussed in the book is those words and the contexts that are given to the word dirt The book talks in detail about the different considerations that are witnessed in the several cultures about the way purity and dirt are always seen a bit of an antithesis of each other At the same time the concept of sanctity and purity is also one of the areas where one can see some interesting conversations How clean and unclean is perceived in different societies and their relative impact is one of the key things discussed in the book Perception of Purity One of the key thing that is discussed in this book is the fact that how the complex and sophisticated setup It is needed to be developed to make sure that the pollution that is rampant at any point in time at a time and this is one of the key things that is discussed during the book 

The other theme regarding the purity that this book talks about is that what sort of context and role religion provides to the whole debate Disapproving Western Concept of Purity Interestingly the Western concept of the pollution which is quite narrow to say the least has been challenged during this book and Douglas has made a deliberate attempt to make sure that she disregards this concept There is a clear effort on her part to make sure that it can be showed that social history its context and its relevance important could be showed at every level At times one gets to wonder if that how the symbolic mechanism for the development of the whole process can be developed to say the least at the level of the society especially given the right context At one point she claims that the dietary laws intricately model the body and the altar upon one another Proposal from Douglas One of the clear proposals that have come from the kosher laws is the fact that the primitive health regulations are some of the things that are always needed to be kept in mind

The work of Douglas is especially referenced a lot when it comes to the way theory of the abjection is shaped up There are many instances when the base work that is set up by her has been appreciated The argument that is set forth by Douglas is that the laws were made up in the nature that they were supposed to take care of the symbolic boundary maintenance that was carried out at any given point of time For instance the prohibited foods were the ones that did not seem to be falling into the given category thus giving them much greater value and context The example of pigs comes to the mind that how they were placed in the natural order but there was a lot of ambiguity around them because how they were sharing the cloven hoof for the said perio