Mary Douglas is well remembered for her contribution to the British modernism expression within the anthropological context. In the course of her biblical study and the learning of the Hebrew language, the scholar was able to unearth various contextual meanings for rituals, beliefs and society. On the other hand, Marvin Harris is equally remembered for his contribution to cultural materialism, which majors on three main aspects of culture: materialism, ecology and evolution. This paper analyzes the works of these scholars to determine their stand on biblical dietary laws.
An example of a dietary law is that of the, pig taboo, which emphasizes abstinence from eating animals which do not chew cud, including pigs. Mary Douglas analyzes this law, first by objectively examining the context of the law while separating oneself from the Christian viewpoint. Her argument is that the pig is neither chosen for its symbolism of filthiness, or some form of medicine to avoid trichinosis, but rather as an objective classification of an animal having hooves, but does not chew cud (Hendel, 2008).
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Alternatively, Marvin Harris offers a different point of view from the cultural materialism perspective. According to Harris, dietary laws are just another way for the rationalization of otherwise irrational perspective that shape opinions of people. According to Harris, one cannot simply claim to disregard the food ways of another simply because one’s religion instructs them not to do so (Spronk, 2002). This scenario would create even further questions. Harris therefore offers the materialism perspective as to why dietary laws were in place, which was a response to economic and social challenges arising at the time, leading to the ban of certain foods, such as cattle in India.
Conclusively, the application of both Harris’ and Douglas’ perspective to this argument shows two sides of the same coin. While there may be no moral or cultural ties to the implication of a dietary law, it is also completely possible that the dietary law was enforced as a means to overcome socio-economic challenges that were present with the community at the time of enacting the law.
References
Hendel, R. (2008). MARY DOUGLAS AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL MODERNISM. Journal of Hebrew Scriptures , 8. Retrieved from JHS Online.
Spronk, B. (2002). Marvin Harris Explains The Unexplainable . Retrieved from Aurora Online: http://aurora.icaap.org/index.php/aurora/article/view/53/66
