疾病、洁净与社会秩序:重读《洁净与危险:对污染和禁忌观念的分析》

Disease,Purity and Social Order:Review of Purity and Danger:An Analysis of Pollution and Taboo

《洁净与危险:对污染和禁忌观念的分析》是象征人类学的代表作之一,综合了原始思维、宗教仪式和社会结构三个方面的研究内容,从象征和结构的双重视角解释了人类的分类观念以及社会秩序如何在此基础上得以构建的过程。医学人类学的研究发现,尽管文化具有多样性,不同文化对疾病的认识也不同,但维护秩序稳定的需求是一致的。从疾病、洁净与社会秩序的角度重读此书能够让我们认识到疾病并非只是卫生学意义上的"危险",还是社会建构的产物。结合疾病在不同文化的隐喻对当代社会中污染与社会秩序之间的关联进行讨论可以发现疾病、污染在不同的文化实践中与社会秩序的维护之间有丰富的联系。

Purity and Danger:An Analysis of Pollution and Taboo is one of the representative works of symbolic anthropology.It integrates the research contents of primitive thinking,religious ceremony and social structure,and explains the classification concept of human beings and the process of how social order can be constructed on this basis from the perspective of symbol and structure.Medical anthropology studies have found that despite the diversity of cultures and the different understandings of diseases,the need to maintain order and stability is consistent.Rereading the book from the perspective of disease,purity and social order enables us to realize that disease is not only a 'danger' in the sense of hygiene,but also a product of social construction.By discussing the relationship between pollution and social order in contemporary society with the metaphor of disease in different cultures,it can be found that there are rich connections between disease and pollution in different cultural practices and the maintenance of social order.