Mary Douglas

"The boundaries we draw define who we are."

"What we cannot think about cannot be managed."

"Society is a system of symbols and rituals."

"The dangerous is always the anomalous."

"Understanding culture is understanding how people make meaning."

"Order is both natural and contingent."

"Every institution reproduces itself through ritual and symbol."

"We fear the loss of our frameworks for understanding."

"The social world is made of meanings, not things."

"What binds us together is our shared sense of order."

"Purity is the ability to contemplate defilement."

"The idea of dirt is essentially disorder."

"Rituals create order out of chaos through symbolic action."

"What is pure in one culture may be polluted in another."

"Social boundaries are maintained through concepts of cleanliness and contamination."

"Dirt is not inherent in objects but in our classification systems."

"Sacred and profane are human constructs, not natural categories."

"Anomalies challenge our understanding of order and must be managed symbolically."

"The body is a microcosm of social order."

"Rules about consumption reflect deeper social structures."

"Taboos protect the integrity of symbolic systems."

"Every culture has its own logic of purity and pollution."

"Boundaries mark what matters most to a society."

"Ritual purification is about restoring social order, not hygiene."

"Ambiguity creates anxiety that cultures resolve through classification."

"Exchange relationships create social bonds as much as material transactions."

"Gifts obligate recipients in ways that money does not."

"Understanding other cultures requires abandoning our own classificatory schemes."

"Symbols gain meaning through social consensus, not individual interpretation."

"The home reflects the order we wish to impose on the world."