Purity and Danger

Douglas quotes the anthropologist Mircea Eliade on the purifying, regenerating, life-giving property that water has in the rituals of the world. It “purifies and regenerates because it nullifies the past, and restores—if only for a moment—the integrity of the dawn of things” (199). Douglas goes on to compare water in this respect with dirt, which has a similar symbolic force of cancellation or nullification.

Dirt symbolizes disorder and anomaly, something “out of place.” To a large degree, dirt is contextual and exists in the eye of the beholder; it is not an absolute (2). Eliminating dirt is a positive action, a way of organizing our environment. In some cultures, dirt figures in rituals of death as a symbol of nullification, dissolution, or creative formlessness.

A witch is a person possessing in his or her psyche the ability to release evil forces in the universe. Douglas sees witches as symbols of the “non-structure”—that is, anomalies that do not fit into the social order. This is why they are hated, shunned and persecuted. Joan of Arc is cited as typical in that she was anomalous in various ways—a woman in armor, a peasant at court, etc.—and was persecuted as a witch.