"Dirt offends against order. Eliminating it is not a negative movement, but a positive effort to organize the environment." p. 2

"The whole universe is harnessed to men's attempts to force one another into good citizenship." p.4

"Each primitive culture is a universe to itself." p. 4

"Primitive society is an energized structure in the centre of its universe." p. 5

"The more we know about primitive religions the more clearly it appears that in their symbolic structures there is scope for meditation on the great mysteries of religion and philosophy." p.6

"Reflection on dirt involves reflection on the relation of order to disorder, being to non-being, form to formlessness, life to death." p. 7

"Any given system of classification must give rise to anomalies, and any given culture must confront events which seem to defy its assumptions." p. 47

"Uncleanness or dirt is that which must not be included if a pattern...