Purity And Danger Now

Mary Douglas’s seminal work Purity and Danger (Routledge, 1966) continues to be indispensable reading for both students and scholars today. Marking the 50th anniversary of Douglas’s classic, the present volume sheds fresh light upon themes raised by Douglas by drawing on recent developments in the social sciences and humanities, as well as current empirical research. In presenting new perspectives on the topic of purity and impurity, the volume integrates work in anthropology and sociology with contemporary ideas from religious studies, cognitive science and the arts. Containing contributions from both established and emerging scholars, including protégées of Douglas herself, Purity and Danger Now is an essential volume for those working on purity and impurity across the full spectrum of the social sciences and humanities.

Purity and Danger is acknowledged as a modern masterpiece of anthropology. It is widely cited in non-anthropological works and gave rise to a body of application, rebuttal and development within anthropology. In 1995 the book was included among the Times Literary Supplement's hundred most influential non-fiction works since WWII. Incorporating the philosophy of religion and science and a generally holistic approach to classification, Douglas demonstrates the relevance of anthropological enquiries to an audience outside her immediate academic circle. She offers an approach to understanding rules of purity by examining what is considered unclean in various cultures. She sheds light on the symbolism of what is considered clean and dirty in relation to order in secular and religious, modern and primitive life.

First published in 1992, this volume follows on from the programme for studying risk and blame that was implied in Purity and Danger. The first half of the book Douglas argues that the study of risk needs a systematic framework of political and cultural comparison. In the latter half she examines questions in cultural theory. Through the eleven essays contained in Risk and Blame, Douglas argues that the prominence of risk discourse will force upon the social sciences a programme of rethinking and consolidation that will include anthropological approaches.

Offering a new and controversial interpretation of Leviticus this book sets out an anthropological perspective on the Jewish purity laws.

Implicit Meanings was first published to great acclaim in 1975. It includes writings on the key themes which are associated with Mary Douglas' work and which have had a major influence on anthropological thought, such as food, pollution, risk, animals and myth. The papers in this text demonstrate the importance of seeking to understand beliefs and practices that are implicit and a priori within what might seem to be alien cultures.

What does the Bible say about the value of women? Does the Bible teach that women are as valuable as men or does it portray them as somehow more flawed, more suspect, or weak and easily deceived? Beginning from Genesis and working all the way through the storyline of the Bible, Worthy demonstrates the significant and yes, even surprising, ways that God has used women to accomplish His kingdom goals. Because, like men, they are created in His image, their lives reflect and declare His worth. Worthy will enable and encourage both men and women to embrace this true and lofty vision of God's creation, plan, and their value in His eyes. Bestselling author Elyse Fitzpatrick and pastor Eric Schumacher together invite women to embrace a transformative and empowering view of their Maker, themselves, and the church. But this isn't only a book for women. It is also a book for men, especially leaders, who want to grow in their understanding of God's perspective on women, people who normally make up the majority of their congregations; men who might be wondering if they've missed something amid the abuse scandals that are rocking the church. Might the headlines they're reading today about abuse have their roots in a denigration of the value and worth of women? Worthy: Celebrating the Value of Women will help every reader see the value, place, and calling of women through study questions and a "Digging Deeper" section that will help men and women discover how to cherish, value, and honor one another for God's glory.

Every arena of science has its own flash-point issues—chemistry and poison gas, physics and the atom bomb—and genetics has had a troubled history with race. As Jonathan Marks reveals, this dangerous relationship rumbles on to this day, still leaving plenty of leeway for a belief in the basic natural inequality of races. The eugenic science of the early twentieth century and the commodified genomic science of today are unified by the mistaken belief that human races are naturalistic categories. Yet their boundaries are founded neither in biology nor in genetics and, not being a formal scientific concept, race is largely not accessible to the scientist. As Marks argues, race can only be grasped through the humanities: historically, experientially, politically. This wise, witty essay explores the persistence and legacy of scientific racism, which misappropriates the authority of science and undermines it by converting it into a social weapon.

First published in 1987, Constructive Drinking is a series of original case studies organized into three sections based on three major functions of drinking. The three constructive functions are: that drinking has a real social role in everyday life; that drinking can be used to construct an ideal world; and that drinking is a significant economic activity. The case studies deal with a variety of exotic drinks