PURIFICATION

the use of ritual techniques to protect against what are held to be unclean, sinful, or otherwise undesirable situations. In a society with a strong sense of solidarity, if one individual violates a taboo, the whole community may feel itself menaced until the violator is purified. Childbirth, puberty, marriage, warfare or bloodshed, and death are commonly marked by purifying rites. Contaminating factors may include foods (as the flesh of totem animals), persons (as menstruating women or persons of inferior caste), places, and so on. Rituals of purification may entail the use of water (as in baptism), mutilation (as in circumcision), fasting, prayer, and confession. The subject is treated in full in Rites and Ceremonies, Sacred: Purification rites and customs.