000			01471nam a22001457a 4500
020			_a9781912284634
082			_a306 _bBEL/M
100			_aBelton, Pádraig
245			_a A Macat analysis of Mary Douglas's Purity and danger : an analysis of the concepts of pollution and taboo
260			_aLondon _bMacat International _c2017
300			_a106p.
520			_aMary Douglas is an outstanding example of an evaluative thinker at work. In Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo, she delves in great detail into existing arguments that portray traditional societies as “evolving” from “savage” beliefs in magic, to religion, to modern science, then explains why she believes those arguments are wrong. She also adeptly chaperones readers through a vast amount of data, from firsthand research in the Congo to close readings of the Old Testament, and analyzes it in depth to provide evidence that traditional and Western religions have more in common than the first comparative religion scholars and early anthropologists thought. First evaluating her scholarly predecessors by marshalling their arguments, Douglas identifies their main weakness: that they dismiss traditional societies and their religions by identifying their practices as “magic,” thereby creating a chasm between savages who believe in magic and sophisticates who practice religion
650			_aPurity, Ritual _aTaboo _aDouglas, Mary, 1921-2007
942			_cBK
999			_c60353 _d60353