Ritual Impurity

Ideal and unsullied: Purity, subjectivity and social power

by Robbie Duschinsky

Draft only; Published in Subjectivity

There has been a good deal of empirical social scientific research which has addressed the theme of purity and has... more There has been a good deal of empirical social scientific research which has addressed the theme of purity and has indicated its social importance. However, few theoretical resources are available to scholars which explicitly attempt to analyse purity, besides Mary Douglas’s structural-functionalist model. This model has many insights, but is not well-adapted to considering issues of subjectivity or social power in contemporary Western societies. This article will attempt to take some steps towards filling this gap. It will be claimed that, through the way they appeal to an imputed essence and origin, purity discourses are often complicit in the consecration and occlusion of relations of power and processes of subjectivation. The argument will focus in particular on the operation of purity discourses in the discursive construction and practical negotiation of female adolescence.

Ruste Taurus

by Reb Chaim HaQoton

This paper offers analyses of the "Red Heifer" known in Hebrew as the פרה אדומה (Parah Adumah) from a... more This paper offers analyses of the "Red Heifer" known in Hebrew as the פרה אדומה (Parah Adumah) from a theological point of view. The sacred cow is burned and its ashes mixed with water to be sprinkled on the ritually impure in order to achieve purification. This paper also briefly discusses the history of the red cow and when it ceased to exist.