7.8 /10 1 Votes
Country United Kingdom Publication date 1970 Pages 177 pp. Followed by Rules and Meanings | 3.9/5 Goodreads Language English Media type Print Originally published 1970 Genre Non-fiction | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Original title Natural Symbols: Explorations in Cosmology Publishers Barrie & Jenkins, Cresset Press Subjects Cultural anthropology, Anthropology of religion Similar Mary Douglas books, Ethnology books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Natural Symbols: Explorations in Cosmology (first published 1970) is an influential book by the British cultural anthropologist Mary Douglas. Further editions were published in 1973, 1982, 1996, 2003. It was also published in 2003 as volume 3 in Mary Douglas: Collected Works (ISBN 0415291062).
Contents
Theoretical innovation
It was in Natural Symbols that Douglas introduced the "group-grid" theory, with "group" indicating how clearly defined an individual's social position is as inside or outside a bounded social group, and "grid" indicating how clearly defined an individual's social role is within networks of social privileges, claims, and obligations. The group–grid pattern was later to be refined and redeployed in laying the foundations of the cultural theory of risk.
Reviews
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