Mary Douglas highlighted the analogies between body and social body in her work on Levitical defilements. Protecting the integrity and wholness of the individual body symbolized the aspirations of Israelite society for a whole and well-protected social body, without intrusions from outside or seepage from inside.
At the same time, Douglas sees ethical interpretations of Levitical purity rules as a Hellenic intrusion into Judaism. But why? If the individual body is homologous with the social body, can’t it also be the individual as a moral being? If the purity rules project a symbolic social universe, why can’t they intro-ject a symbolic psychological universe?
The quadriga rescues from this oversight, since the allegory of body and social body opens immediately into an allegory of body and soul.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Battle of Minneapolis
The Battle of Minneapolis is the latest flashpoint in our ongoing regime-level political conflict. It pits not…
Of Roots and Adventures
I have lived in Ohio, Michigan, Georgia (twice), Pennsylvania, Alabama (also twice), England, and Idaho. I left…
Our Most Popular Articles of 2025
It’s been a big year for First Things. Our website was completely redesigned, and stories like the…
