Mary Douglas

"Order is fragile and requires constant vigilance."

"Institutions are constructed from shared meanings."

"What we classify as waste reveals our values."

"The sacred depends on the separation of realms."

"Power operates through control of meaning."

"Symbols connect the individual body to the social body."

"We fear what threatens our sense of order."

"Cleanliness is a form of social control."

"Every boundary defines an inside and outside."

"What seems natural is actually enforced."

"Rituals are negotiations between chaos and order."

"The body is inscribed with social meanings."

"Anomalies force us to think about our categories."

"Society is held together by invisible agreements."

"What we taboo reveals what we truly value."

"Danger is a property we assign, not discover."

"Every culture creates its own logic."

"The unmarked category is the most powerful."

"Understanding others requires suspending our own categories."

"Boundaries between pure and impure are always social."

"Rituals serve to unite individuals into communities."

"What is strange is what we need to understand."

"The anthropological eye reveals the constructed nature of all order."

"We live through meanings we often cannot articulate."

"Every society fears its own dissolution."

"Order requires the active participation of all members."

"What seems irrational serves rational purposes."

"The sacred is created through separation and ritual."

"Meaning is collective or it is nothing."

"We are each born into an existing system of meaning."