Disgust shapes our behavior, our technology, our relationships. It is the reason we wear deodorant, use the bathroom in private and wield forks instead of eating with our bare hands.
[A]ll forms of disgust grew from our revulsion at the prospect of ingesting substances that we shouldn’t, like worms or feces.
The focus on food makes intuitive sense. After all, we register disgust in the form of nausea or vomiting — nausea being the body’s cue to stop eating and vomiting our way of hitting the “undo” button on whatever we just ate.
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If the initial function of disgust was like a piece of caution tape plastered over our mouths, the tape had — over time — wound itself around our other holes (to regulate sexual activity) and our minds (to regulate moral activity).
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But purification rites may also be healthful (washing your hands) or ritually significant (baptism). We will never disentangle ourselves from the instinct to purify, even as we name different reasons for doing it: justice, patriotism, progress, tradition, freedom, public health, God, science.
Beneath it all will be a confused omnivore, stumbling upon a dewy mushroom in the forest — with no clue what will happen if she eats it.
