Natural symbols : explorations in cosmology / Mary Douglas ; with a new introduction.

By:

Douglas, Mary, 1921-2007 [author]

Material type: Text

TextPublication details: London ; New York : Routledge, 1996.Description: xxxvii, 183 pages : illustrations ; 23 cmContent type:

text

Media type:

unmediated

Carrier type:

volume

ISBN:

0415138256
0415138264

Subject(s):

DDC classification:

302.222

Online resources:

Publisher description

Contents:

Summary: "There are no such things as natural symbols. Every culture naturalises a certain view of the human body to make it carry social meanings. This work focuses on how the selections from blood, bones, breath or excrement, are made. Body symbolism is always in service to social intentions, and the body cannot be endowed with universal meanings. In this now classic work Mary Douglas shows how certain forms of social life bring forth regularly the same varieties of symbolic expression. Hierarchy treats the body as a hierarchy; sect treats it as a closed system; individualism treats it as pervasive energy. Political movements as well as religions have their rituals, medicine, ethics, educational theory, aesthetics, a huge range of judgements fall into line behind the standard cultural bias. Though Natural Symbols is a book about religion, it also concerns secular symbolism. It has stimulated new insights and provoded re-appraisals of current orthodoxies. Above all it provides a way to think beyond our own cultural prejudices." -- Book cover.

List(s) this item appears in: Anne Stewart's Collection

Holdings ( 1 )
Title notes ( 4 )

Holdings
Item type	Current library	Call number	Status	Date due	Barcode	Item holds
Book - 7-day loan	CYA Library Main Collection	302.222 DOU (Browse shelf(Opens below))	Available		00000011011

Total holds: 0

Originally published: 2nd edition. London : Barrie and Jenkins, 1973.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [171]-176) and index.

Away from ritual -- To inner experience -- The Bog Irish -- Grid and group -- The two bodies -- Test cases -- The problem of evil -- Impersonal rules -- Control of symbols -- Out of the cave.

"There are no such things as natural symbols. Every culture naturalises a certain view of the human body to make it carry social meanings. This work focuses on how the selections from blood, bones, breath or excrement, are made. Body symbolism is always in service to social intentions, and the body cannot be endowed with universal meanings.
In this now classic work Mary Douglas shows how certain forms of social life bring forth regularly the same varieties of symbolic expression. Hierarchy treats the body as a hierarchy; sect treats it as a closed system; individualism treats it as pervasive energy. Political movements as well as religions have their rituals, medicine, ethics, educational theory, aesthetics, a huge range of judgements fall into line behind the standard cultural bias.
Though Natural Symbols is a book about religion, it also concerns secular symbolism. It has stimulated new insights and provoded re-appraisals of current orthodoxies. Above all it provides a way to think beyond our own cultural prejudices." -- Book cover.