Mary Douglas

Symbolic Anthropologist

[nervouscomputerartisan]

Thinking thought...

“Pretensions to moral superiority are devastatingly destructive.” ~ Mary Douglas

[nervouscomputerartisan]

Et tu religio?

“It’s only partly true that religion does more harm than good in society. The community makes God into the image it wants, vengeful, or milky sweet, or scrupulously just, and so on.” ~ Mary Douglas

[nervouscomputerartisan]

For the love of education...

All societies can be understood and compared by divisions such as grid and group categories. Grid has to do with the status of a person in society that is based socially on divisions such as descent, race, sex, ethnicity, etc. Group refers to those socially motivated by the good of the society as a whole. They may also be driven by personal beliefs. Cheers!

Natural Symbols (1970) ~ explorations in cosmology ~ Mary Douglas

[nervouscomputerartisan]

Cultural Bias?

“The theory of cultural bias... is the idea that a culture is based on a particular form of organization. It can't be transplanted except to another variant of that organization. If you want to change the culture, you will have to start by changing the organization. ” ~ Mary Douglas

[nervouscomputerartisan]

First book! :)

We organize our social lives around categories of purity and impurity; especially in societies where beliefs of pollution and cleanliness are strict. Here I argue that there are cultural practices and prohibitions to reinforce our ideals of purity. They apply not only to physical cleanliness but moral health as well. In this novel I describe the symbolic nature of morality. I hope you enjoy it. Cheers.

Purity and Danger ~ An analysis of the concepts of pollution and taboo.

Mary Douglas (1966)