Mary Douglas facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Dame Mary Douglas DBE FBA
Born	Margaret Mary Tew (1921-03-25)25 March 1921 Sanremo, Italy
Died	16 May 2007(2007-05-16) (aged 86) London, England
Nationality	British
Alma mater	University of Oxford
Known for	Purity and Danger, Natural Symbols, Cultural theory of risk
Awards	FBA, CBE, DBE
Scientific career
Fields	Social anthropology, Comparative religion
Institutions	University College London, Russell Sage Foundation, Northwestern University, Princeton University
Doctoral advisor	E. E. Evans-Pritchard
Influences	Émile Durkheim
Influenced	David Bloor Steve Rayner Peter Brown

Dame Mary Douglas (born Margaret Mary Tew; 25 March 1921 – 16 May 2007) was a famous British anthropologist. An anthropologist is a scientist who studies human societies and cultures. Mary Douglas was known for her ideas about human culture and symbols. She specialized in social anthropology, which looks at how people live together in groups. She was interested in how different religions compare to each other.

Mary Douglas's Life Story

Mary Douglas was born Margaret Mary Tew in Sanremo, Italy. Her father worked in the Indian Civil Service in Burma. Her mother was a devoted Roman Catholic, and Mary was raised in that faith.

After her mother passed away, Mary and her younger sister, Patricia, were raised by their grandparents. They attended a Roman Catholic school in Roehampton. Mary then went on to study at St. Anne's College, Oxford, from 1939 to 1943. There, she was influenced by a well-known anthropologist named E. E. Evans-Pritchard.

Early Career and Fieldwork

After college, Mary worked in the British Colonial Office. This is where she met many social anthropologists. In 1946, she went back to Oxford to study anthropology more deeply. She began her doctorate in anthropology in 1949.

In 1949, she traveled to what was then the Belgian Congo (now the Democratic Republic of Congo). She did field work with the Lele people, living in their villages. Her research was cut short by a civil war, but it led to her first book, The Lele of the Kasai, published in 1963.

Family and Teaching

In the early 1950s, Mary finished her doctorate and married James Douglas. They had three children together. She taught at University College London for about 25 years, eventually becoming a Professor of Social Anthropology.

Her most famous book, Purity and Danger, was published in 1966. This book made her very well-known in the field of anthropology.

Later in her career, she spent 11 years teaching and writing in the United States. She wrote about many topics, including how people think about risk, the environment, and food rituals. She received an honorary doctorate from Uppsala University in Sweden in 1986.

Awards and Later Years

In 1989, Mary Douglas was elected a Fellow of the British Academy. She received several important awards from the British Crown. She was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1992. Then, in 2006, she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE). This is a very high honor.

Dame Mary Douglas passed away on 16 May 2007, in London, at the age of 86. She is remembered for her important contributions to understanding human culture and symbolism.

Mary Douglas's Key Ideas in Anthropology

Understanding the Lele People

Mary Douglas's first book, The Lele of the Kasai (1963), focused on the Lele people. They lived in a matrilineal society, meaning that family lines and property were passed down through the mother's side. The Lele had a very different social world from what Mary was used to.

She studied how the Lele produced and shared wealth. She also looked at their marriage customs and how leaders gained power. She even explored their beliefs about witchcraft. Mary showed how a society's social structure is connected to its beliefs and values.

Purity and Danger: What is "Dirt"?

Douglas's most famous book, Purity and Danger (1966), explores ideas of cleanliness and pollution in different societies. She wanted to understand how people decide what is "pure" and what is "unclean."

Purity in Different Societies

Mary Douglas explained that different societies have different ideas about purity. For example, in Western societies, we often think of "dirty" and "holy" as very separate. But in some societies, ideas of taboo (things you shouldn't touch or do) and holiness are connected to spirits or gods.

She noted that for something to be unclean in some cultures, physical contact might be needed. For example, touching an unclean object could make a person unclean. This is different from some Christian beliefs, where uncleanness might affect the spirit, not just the body. Douglas stressed that to understand other cultures' taboos, we must first understand our own.

"Dirt" as Disorder

Douglas challenged the idea that rituals for cleanliness are only about hygiene. For instance, people often think that avoiding pork in Islam is just for health reasons. Or that incense was used to cover bad smells. Douglas argued that while there might be side benefits, rituals often have deeper symbolic meanings.

She believed that if you take away the idea of germs and hygiene, what's left of "dirt" is its symbolism. For Douglas, dirt is not just physical grime. Instead, she saw dirt as anything that is out of place.

Humans like to organize things into clear systems. When something doesn't fit into these systems, it can be seen as "dirt" or a disruption. For example, shoes are fine on your feet, but if they are on the kitchen table, they are "dirty" because they are out of place. Douglas argued that societies exclude things that don't fit their established order to keep their system strong.

Understanding Old Laws: The Book of Leviticus

Mary Douglas also famously interpreted the dietary laws in the Book of Leviticus from the Bible. She argued that these laws were not just about health. Instead, they were about creating social boundaries and order.

For example, in Leviticus, pigs are forbidden to eat. Douglas explained that this might be because pigs have split hooves like cows, but they don't chew cud. This makes them an "anomaly" – something that doesn't fit neatly into the categories of animals that are allowed. Because they don't fit the clear rules, they are seen as impure and excluded.

Natural Symbols: Group and Grid

In her book Natural Symbols (1970), Douglas introduced two important ideas: "group" and "grid."

• Group refers to how clearly defined a person's social position is. Are they clearly inside or outside a specific social group?
• Grid refers to how clearly defined a person's role is within their social networks. This includes their privileges, claims, and duties.

These ideas helped explain how social structures influence people's beliefs and behaviors.

Works by Mary Douglas

• Peoples of the Lake Nyasa Region (1950)
• The Lele of the Kasai (1963)
• Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo (1966)
• Natural Symbols: Explorations in Cosmology (1970)
• Implicit Meanings: Essays in Anthropology (1975)
• The World of Goods: towards an anthropology of consumption (1979) (with Baron Isherwood)
• Evans-Pritchard (1980)
• Risk and Culture (1980) (with Aaron Wildavsky)
• In the Active Voice (1982)
• How Institutions Think (1986)
• Missing persons: a critique of the social sciences (1988) (with Steven Ney)
• Risk and Blame: Essays in Cultural Theory (1992)
• In the Wilderness: The Doctrine of Defilement in the Book of Numbers (1993)
• Thought styles: Critical essays on good taste (1996)
• Leviticus as Literature (1999)
• Jacob's Tears: The Priestly Work of Reconciliation (2004)
• Thinking in Circles (2007)

Books Edited by Mary Douglas

• Rules and Meanings. The Anthropology of Everyday Knowledge: Selected Readings (1973)
• Constructive Drinking: Perspectives on Drink from Anthropology (1987)

See also

In Spanish: Mary Douglas para niños

• Risk perception
• Cultural Theory of risk
• Sacred contagion