Mary Douglas

"Every culture must define the boundaries of the acceptable and the unacceptable."

"What we inherit from our predecessors is not just knowledge but ways of seeing."

"The nation-state solves the problem of loyalty through appeals to shared kinship."

"What we consume is an expression of our deepest values and identities."

"Social order is maintained through a thousand small acts of conformity and exclusion."

"The concept of the person varies dramatically across cultures and historical periods."

"What seems natural is the result of generations of naturalization."

"Every gift carries within it an expectation of return and a claim on the recipient."

"The boundaries we draw are boundaries we must constantly police and reinforce."

"What we fear most is often what we need most to understand."

"The sacred operates through the enforcement of separation and hierarchy."

"Social identity is never simply given; it must be continually performed and asserted."

"What we inherit as tradition is the accumulated result of power struggles."

"The home reflects the values of the wider society at the most intimate scale."

"What appears to be individual preference is often collective convention."

"Every system of meaning depends upon exclusion and boundary maintenance."

"The person is not a natural unit but a social and cultural construction."

"What we call progress is often the displacement of problems from one location to another."

"Social order requires that we agree to be shocked by what violates our categories."

"The gift economy teaches us that all relationships are based on obligation and exchange."

"What we most despise reveals what we most fear in ourselves."

"Every culture draws the line between the human and the non-human differently."

"The concept of purity is always an expression of social anxiety and desire for order."

"What we inherit is not just ideas but ways of seeing and being in the world."

"Social institutions persist because they solve real problems of coordination and meaning."

"The boundaries of the self are always drawn in relation to others."

"What we call natural is the accumulated result of social labor and cultural choice."