MARY DOUGLAS' NATURAL SYMBOLS Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

MARY DOUGLAS NATURAL SYMBOLS - Research Paper ExampleAccording to Douglas, natural symbols atomic number 18 an important determinant of the nature of social and religious rituals dependable by entirely cultures worldwide. These natural symbols could be derived from blood, breath or excrement and each one of them has a social meaning and implication. Using these natural symbols, the choices, preferences and perceptions of every culture can be studied. According to Mary Douglas, the way a person treats his/her body explains his/her perception of the society. The hierarchies existing in a society are very much similar to how a human treats his various organs. She explains According to one, the body pull up stakes tend to be conceived as an organ of communication. The major preoccupations result be with its functioning effectively the relation of head to subordinate members go forth be a model of the central control system, the favorite metaphors of statecraft will harp upon the f low of blood in the arteries, sustenance and the restoration of strength. According to another, though the body will also be seen as a vehicle of life, it will be vulnerable in different ways. The dangers to it will come from failure to control the quality of what it absorbs through the orifices fear of poisoning, protection of boundaries, aversion to bodily waste products and medical theory that enjoins frequent purging. Another again will be very practical about the possible uses of bodily rejects, very sang-froid about recycling waste matter and about the pay-off from such(prenominal) practices. The distinction between the life within the body and the body that carries it will hold no interest. In the control, areas of these society controversies about spirit and matter will scarcely arise. But at the other end of the spectrum a different attitude will be seen. Here the body is not primarily the vehicle of life, for life will be seen as purely spiritual and the body as digres sive matter. Here we can locate millennial tendencies from our early history to the present day. For these people society appears as a system that does not work. (Douglas 1996, 16-17) The Body, Religion and Anthropology In her book, Douglas explains how the ritualistic patterns of a culture can be derived through their body symbolism. This book examines religion from an anthropological perspective, explaining the ritualistic and socialistic norms existent in all cultures. Thus, in order to understand a culture truly, a thorough study of the natural symbols occurring in the society is mandatory. Sarah Coakley writes in Religion and the body Anthropologists charter long been interested in ideas about the body. Thus, in the nineteenth-century anthropology, the centrality of the notion of race involved detailed studies of the bodies of primitives. European imperialism made possible, and evolutionary theories of progress encouraged and feed on, the detailed description and classificati on of types of European and non- European bodies.1 As is evident, the body forms an important element of all anthropological studies that aim at a straitlaced analysis of a given culture. According to Coakley, by the end of the nineteenth century, studies focusing on the symbolic aspects of the body in primitive cultures became increasingly prevalent. It was believed that such a study would tell us something profound of the human mind2. Mary Douglas is not the only one to have elaborated on the implication of bodily symbols in anthropology. Many other works, like those of Benthall and Pohemus, Blacking etc. have brought out the importance of the Anthropology of the Body. However, Douglas work remains the most universal in terms of both its academic value and interesting notions. Harries (1993) interprets natural symbols as follows, By natural symbols, I