Purity and Danger

For modern society, uncleanness is a matter of hygiene, aesthetics and etiquette. For ancient and primitive societies, it was a religious matter, with wide-ranging consequences. Especially in the English-speaking world, our discussion of this topic is often clouded by our avoidance of the word “primitive,” an avoidance that may express an underlying condescension. In fact, “primitive” is a useful term, in anthropology as in other fields. In dealing with other cultures, we ought to stress the unity of all human experience yet also its diversity: “The right basis for comparison is to insist on the unity of human experience and at the same time to insist on its variety, on the differences which make comparison worthwhile” (96).

Douglas criticizes Levy-Bruhl's ideas about the differences between “primitive mentality” and rational thought. For Douglas, the real distinguishing marks of the primitive worldview are, firstly, that it is man-centered (a view displayed in many myths and rituals of primitive peoples about fortune, fertility, and medicine); and secondly that it lacks the self-consciousness and striving for objectivity that characterize modern thinking. In order to perceive rightly the differences between primitive and modern culture, we must free our thought from “the shackles of its own