Sacrifice rituals are used to heal and cleanse the individual or the community of pollution.In certain primitive cultures the type of animal and how it is to be sacrificed depends on the intended purpose of the cleansing ritual.Douglas tells us that the Dinka tribe will cut a beast lengthwise through the sexual organs to undo an act of incest.Cutting the sacrificial animal across the middle celebrates a truce, while suffocation or trampling to death is used in other instances.(115-116) The human body is often used in ritual manner as a means of obtaining or alleviating personal concerns, i.e. circumcision rites.Douglas notes that the primitive cultures tend to manipulate (their own) bodies surgically in an attempt to change trends in nature or the environment; to improve fertility or hunting success.Contemporary man tends to manipulate the environment directly for the same purposes.
The extent to which bodily fluids and excretions are considered polluting varies from culture to culture.It is noted that sorcerers often use ‘bodily refuse’ in their incantations and spells for evil purposes.Initiation into the realm of sorcery often includes the letting of blood, committing of incest or cannibalistic acts. These bodily secretions can be used for evil against an enemy in an attempt to protect ones own community, or by outsiders against the weak point in a society’s structure.Aside from sorcery, where the use of excrement in rituals implies power to harm or “pollute,” excrement is more often used symbolically to indicate pain, loss or separation.
In the hands of those who have the power to bless, the same substances can be used for good.Blood, in the Hebrew religion, was regarded as the source of life, and not to be touched except in the sacred conditions of sacrifice. (Blood is considered to be polluting in all other circumstances.)Spittle of powerful persons is sometimes thought to be part of an effective blessing.Bodily fluids taken from cadavers of royalty can be used to anoint the new leader in one case and is made into an ointment that provides a new queen with the ability to control the weather in another case. (121)
The orifices of the body represent those areas where the body is most vulnerable.Spittle, blood, milk, urine, feces, and tears represent substances that have crossed the margins or boundaries of the body.The degree to which these substances are considered dangerous differs from culture to culture around the world.In some areas menstrual blood is lethal and it is not in others.Excrement is polluting in India and in other areas is considered a joke.These perceptions of bodily pollution are often a reflection the dangers perceived by the society in question.
The cooking of food is another place where pollution can occur.Many people are involved in the growing, harvesting and preparing of one’s food.At each step food can become polluted.Since members of lower castes do such labor, the danger of pollution is great when it comes to food and is still greater with cooked food.“One cannot share the food prepared by people without sharing in their nature.”(127) Mary Douglas suggests that pollution through cooked food is a perceived danger in India because of the perception that the “external boundaries of the social system are under pressure.”The ritual use of food and the symbolic understanding of pollution reflect the social order.(128)
The conclusion here is that a society’s perception of danger to its structures is reflected in its rituals.The ritual treatment of the body itself is likely to reflect symbolically these same fears of pollution.