Dirt is matter out of place and always signals an underlying order

Evidence

Mary Douglas writes: “If we can abstract pathogenicity and hygiene from our notion of dirt, we are left with the old definition of dirt as matter out of place. This is a very suggestive approach. It implies two conditions: a set of ordered relations and a contravention of that order. Dirt then, is never a unique, isolated event. Where there is dirt there is a system. Dirt is the by-product of a systematic ordering and classification of matter, in so far as ordering involves rejecting inappropriate symbols.” — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 1611

Categorization

• DEFINE: Mary Douglas’s classic definition of dirt as ‘matter out of place’ — this frames how moral reformers classify behavior as pollution by reference to an idealized order.
• XREF: Connects to the impurity/pollution frameworks used throughout this chapter to analyze how the black Baptist women’s movement categorized ‘immoral’ behavior as disorder to be purged. — connects to: The concept of dirt presupposes an ordering system it violates. — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 1611; Discerning order always persists within otherwise disordered historical periods — Philip Chase Bobbitt, Reflections Inspired by My Critics, 860

Broader Connections

• The concept of dirt presupposes an ordering system it violates. #expands (1.00) — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 1611
• Discerning order always persists within otherwise disordered historical periods #corroborates (0.78) — Philip Chase Bobbitt, Reflections Inspired by My Critics, 860