Mary Douglas Quotes

Mary Douglas — British Scientist born on March 25, 1921, died on May 16, 2007

Dame Mary Douglas, DBE, FBA was a British anthropologist, known for her writings on human culture and symbolism, whose area of speciality was social anthropology. Douglas was considered a follower of Émile Durkheim and a proponent of structuralist analysis, with a strong interest in comparative religion... (wikipedia)

Pretensions to moral superiority are devastatingly destructive.

Real equality is immensely difficult to achieve, it needs continual revision and monitoring of distributions. And it does not provide buffers between members, so they are continually colliding or frustrating each other.

If you want to change the culture, you will have to start by changing the organization.

It seems true that the growth of science and secularism made organized Christianity feel under threat.

Religion can make it worse. Are you supposing that if people were encouraged to believe in a transcendent reality, and to be encouraged by grand rituals and music and preaching, to love their neighbors, then they would put jealousy and frustration aside?

Mary Douglas Quotes

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