Mary Douglas's Purity and Danger, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1966, is a major work of social anthropology. Its strength is that it is the actual source of the influential idea of dirt as matter out of place, applied across a wide comparative range of purity and pollution systems. Its limit is the ordinary one for a single, wide ranging comparative synthesis published nearly sixty years ago: some of the specific ethnographic cases it draws on have since been revisited by scholars working with more recent fieldwork.
Facts
Assessment
Reliability Tier2
Reliability tier 2: a major work of social anthropology from a respected trade press, the origin of an influential comparative idea though nearly sixty years old with some of its own ethnographic cases since revisited. NotesDirt as matter out of place; the anthropology of purity and pollution.
Citation
AuthorMary Douglas
PublisherRoutledge and Kegan Paul
Publication Year1966
Source Typebook
Claims Backed By This Source (8 claims)
This source backs 8 claims across the atlas. As facts: 7 well-attested. Plus 1 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.
Disposition By Topic
- Sources, 7 claims: 7 well-attested.
- Doctrines, 1 claims: 1 general references.
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