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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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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
Private
Worry
Looser
Religion
Recycling
Done
Arrangements
Reasonable
Organized
Prefer
Harm

More quotes by Mary Douglas

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Hierarchy works well in a stable environment.
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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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Any great organization can go through sectarian phases.
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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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The human body is always treated as an image of society.
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Behind a leader there must be followers, but they should always be on the lookout for the main chance and ready to change sides if the current leader doesn't deliver.
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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.
Mary Douglas
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Pretensions to moral superiority are devastatingly destructive.
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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Institutions have the pathetic megalomania of the computer whose whole vision of the world is its own program.
Mary Douglas
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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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Hierarchy is is much reviled in the present day.
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.
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I am convinced that living in an enclave shapes the personality, and living alone shapes the personality too.
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.
Mary Douglas
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Just in our lifetime our society has become looser and more private, it becomes extremely difficult to hold to any permanent commitment whatever, least of all to organized religion.
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.
Mary Douglas
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Islam is in principle egalitarian, and has always had problems with power.
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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It's unlikely that the organized religions will get more sectarian... or is it? I am not at all sure.
Mary Douglas