Louis Dumont

"We must learn to think beyond the categories our culture provides."

"The sacred and profane divide all human societies."

"Comparison reveals both similarity and irreducible difference."

"Modern consciousness has lost touch with fundamental realities."

"To know the other, one must bracket one's own assumptions."

"Hierarchy and equality are different ways of organizing human life."

"The gift economy teaches us about reciprocity and obligation."

"We are all captive to our own cultural categories."

"Meaning is not found within the individual but within relationships."

"The study of man demands both distance and engagement."

"Ideology prevents us from seeing social reality clearly."

"Understanding difference requires respect for the integrity of other worldviews."

"The sacred is not the opposite of the rational; it is another form of meaning."

"Modernity has created unprecedented forms of human organization."

"We cannot step outside our own skin, but we can try."

"The anthropological imagination liberates us from the tyranny of the obvious."

"Hierarchy gives form and meaning to human existence."

"The individual is embedded in networks of obligation and reciprocity."

"To compare is to understand; to understand is to change."

"The sacred dimension of life cannot be ignored or transcended."

"We are prisoners of our own ideology."

"Anthropology is the science of human freedom and human constraint."

"The holistic view shows what analysis breaks apart."

"Equality is an ideology; hierarchy is a fact of human organization."

"To study others is to return home transformed."

"The profane world depends upon the sacred for its meaning."

"Modern individualism obscures our dependence on others."

"We must learn to think like those we study."

"Truth emerges when we compare ourselves to others."

"The gift creates bonds that money cannot."