Mary Douglas

“Where there is dirt there is system. Dirt is the by-product of a systematic ordering and classification of matter.”

“It seems that the human mind is programmed to see pattern.”

“Property is a social convention, an agreement about rights. It is not a thing.”

“Dirt is matter out of place.”

“Ritual is a symbolic transformation of experience that no amount of explaining can substitute.”

“Goods are not merely for eating, clothing, and shelter, but for thinking; they are good for thinking.”

“Purity is the enemy of change.”

“The whole universe is built on signs and symbols. We are the creatures that interpret them.”

“Risk is not only a matter of calculating probabilities and consequences, but also a cultural construct.”

“Each of us is a kind of crossroads where several things happen.”

“The person is a social being, not a hermetic container of a single, consistent, and logically coherent consciousness.”

“Culture, in the sense of the public, standardized values of a community, mediates the experience of individuals.”

“The idea of society is a powerful image. It is potent in its own right to control or manipulate.”