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Hierarchy is is much reviled in the present day.

Mary Douglas

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Mary Douglas
Age: 86 †
Born: 1921
Born: March 25
Died: 2007
Died: May 16
Anthropologist
University Teacher
Writer
San Remo
Dame Mary Douglas
Margaret Mary Tew
Much
Reviled
Hierarchy
Present

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I am convinced that living in an enclave shapes the personality, and living alone shapes the personality too.
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The theory of cultural bias... is the idea that a culture is based on a particular form of organization. It can't be transplanted except to another variant of that organization.
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I have increasingly, over the years, felt that religion today does our civilization more harm than good.
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Our technological infrastructure alienates us from each other. No need to form a workplace community, everybody there will be out in a year or two, and so will you, looking for a better place.
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Hierarchy works well in a stable environment.
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The history of the Church of Rome is a constant leakage of members into such breakaway cults, which go on splitting.
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If you want to change the culture, you will have to start by changing the organization.
Mary Douglas
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Where there is dirt there is system. Dirt is the byproduct of a systematic ordering and classification of matter.
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Any great organization can go through sectarian phases.
Mary Douglas
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Mormons... are so strong, they can handle wealth, they are confident. I think it is because they are not bogged down by rules for equality, but have a firmly defined system of relative status and responsible command.
Mary Douglas
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If people want to compete for leadership of a religious group, they can compete in piety. A chilling thought. Or funny.
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I am sure it must be true that people opt out of the mainstream society because they feel that there are going to be no rewards for them, if they stay.
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Since 1970, relationships can be more volatile, jobs more ephemeral, geographical mobility more intensified, stability of marriage weaker.
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The human body is always treated as an image of society.
Mary Douglas
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Inequality can have a bad downside, but equality, for its part, sure does get in the way of coordination.
Mary Douglas
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Religion can make it worse. Are you supposing that if people were encouraged to believe in a transcendent reality, and to be encouraged by grand rituals and music and preaching, to love their neighbors, then they would put jealousy and frustration aside?
Mary Douglas
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It is very reasonable to worry about the harm done by organized religion, and to prefer looser and more private arrangements.
Mary Douglas
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Islam is in principle egalitarian, and has always had problems with power.
Mary Douglas
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Institutions have the pathetic megalomania of the computer whose whole vision of the world is its own program.
Mary Douglas
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Yes, disappointment over perceived unfairness, injustice, promises not kept, tends to go hand in hand with increasing prosperity. Expectations are dashed. What can I say!
Mary Douglas