Every natural symbol - derived from blood, breath or excrement - carries a social meaning and this work focuses on the ways in which any one culture makes its selections from body symbolism. Each ...person treats their body as an image of society and the author examines the varieties of ritual and symbolic expression and the patterns of social ritual in which they are embodied.Natural Symbols is a book about religion and it concerns our own society at least as much as any other. It has stimulated new insights into religious and political movements and has provoked re-appraisals of current progressive orthodoxies in many fields. As a classic, it represents a work of anthropology in its widest sense, exploring themes such as the social meaning of natural symbols and the image of the body in society which are now very much in vogue in anthropology, sociology and cultural studies.In this reissue and with a new Introduction, Natural Symbols will continue to appeal to all students of anthropology, sociology and religion.
Risk and Blame Douglas, Professor Mary
1992, 20020503, 2002, 1994, 2002-05-03, 19920101
eBook
Risk and danger are culturally conditioned ideas. They are shaped by pressures of social life and accepted notions of accountability. The risk analyses that are increasingly being utilised by ...politicians, aid programmes and business ignore the insights to be gained from social anthropology which can be applied to modern industrial society. In this collection of recent essays, Mary Douglas develops a programme for studying risk and blame that follows from ideas originally proposed in Purity and Danger . She suggests how political and cultural bias can be incorporated into the study of risk perception and in the discussion of responsibility in public policy.
Implicit Meanings Douglas, Professor Mary; Mary Douglas
2002, 20020104, 2002-01-04, 19990101
eBook
Implicit Meanings was first published to great acclaim in 1975. It includes writings on the key themes which are associated with Mary Douglas' work and which have had a major influence on ...anthropological thought, such as food, pollution, risk, animals and myth. The papers in this text demonstrate the importance of seeking to understand beliefs and practices that are implicit and a priori within what might seem to be alien cultures.
Every natural symbol - derived from blood, breath or excrement - carries a social meaning and this work focuses on the ways in which any one culture makes its selections from body symbolism. Each ...person treats their body as an image of society and the author examines the varieties of ritual and symbolic expression and the patterns of social ritual in which they are embodied. Natural Symbols is a book about religion and it concerns our own society at least as much as any other. It has stimulated new insights into religious and political movements and has provoked re-appraisals of current progressive orthodoxies in many fields. As a classic, it represents a work of anthropology in its widest sense, exploring themes such as the social meaning of natural symbols and the image of the body in society which are now very much in vogue in anthropology, sociology and cultural studies. In this reissue and with a new Introduction, Natural Symbols will continue to appeal to all students of anthropology, sociology and religion.
Risk and Blame Douglas, Professor Mary; Douglas, Mary
05/2002
eBook
Risk and danger are culturally conditioned ideas. They are shaped by pressures of social life and accepted notions of accountability. The risk analyses that are increasingly being utilised by ...politicians, aid programmes and business ignore the insights to be gained from social anthropology which can be applied to modern industrial society.In this collection of recent essays, Mary Douglas develops a programme for studying risk and blame that follows from ideas originally proposed in Purity and Danger. She suggests how political and cultural bias can be incorporated into the study of risk perception and in the discussion of responsibility in public policy.
Implicit Meanings was first published to great acclaim in 1975. It includes writings on the key themes which are associated with Mary Douglas' work and which have had a major influence on ...anthropological thought.
Imagining Creation discusses a wide selection of creation stories from different cultures, regions, and periods, from the Ancient Near East and India, Bible and Koran, to modern Africa and Europe.
Lele religious life is organised by a number of cult groups. For a long time they seemed to me
to be a collection of quite heterogeneous cults, uncoordinated except for a certain overlap in
...membership. In one of them, the Diviners’ Group, entry is by initiation only, though the
candidate is supposed to give evidence of a dream summons. In another, the Twin Parents,
there is no initiation. Parents of twins have no choice but to pay the fees and become Twin
Diviners. In another, the Begetters, candidates must have begotten a child, pay fees and
undergo initiation. Members of this group who have begotten children of both sexes are
qualified for entrance into another group, which makes a cult of the pangolin (Manis tricuspis).1
