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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

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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
Organized
Sure
Sectarian
Unlikely
Religions

More quotes by Mary Douglas

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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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If you want to change the culture, you will have to start by changing the organization.
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Institutions have the pathetic megalomania of the computer whose whole vision of the world is its own program.
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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.
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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?
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When we are reflecting on terrorism we can grieve for many things we do and have done.
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Hierarchy works well in a stable environment.
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Pretensions to moral superiority are devastatingly destructive.
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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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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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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!
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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.
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Hierarchy is is much reviled in the present day.
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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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Any great organization can go through sectarian phases.
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The human body is always treated as an image of society.
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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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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.
Mary Douglas
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Islam is in principle egalitarian, and has always had problems with power.
Mary Douglas
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Since 1970, relationships can be more volatile, jobs more ephemeral, geographical mobility more intensified, stability of marriage weaker.
Mary Douglas