Purity and Danger: An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo
- ISBN-10
- 0415066085
- ISBN-13
- 9780415066082
- Series
- Purity and Danger
- Category
- Purity, Ritual
- Pages
- 193
- Language
- English
- Published
- 1966
- Publisher
- Burns & Oates
Description
Is cleanliness next to godliness? What does such a concept really mean? Why does it recur as a universal theme across all societies? And what are the implications for the unclean? In Purity and Danger, Mary Douglas identifies the concern for purity as a key theme at the heart of every society. In lively and lucid prose she explains its relevance for every reader by revealing its wide-ranging impact on our attitudes to society, values, cosmology and knowledge. This book has been hugely influential in many areas of debate - from religion to social theory. But perhaps its most important role is to offer each reader a new explanation of why people behave in the way they do. With a specially commissioned preface by the author which assesses the continuing significance of the work thirty-five years on, this Routledge Classics edition will ensure that Purity and Danger continues to challenge and question well into the new millennium. Book jacket.
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Other editions
-
- 2003
- 193 pages
- Paperback
- Psychology Press
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