Mary Douglas

About the author

Dame Mary Douglas (1921–2007) was a British social anthropologist whose influential writings on human culture, symbolism, and risk established her as one of the leading figures in her field. Born in Sanremo and based in London, she was considered a follower of Émile Durkheim and a proponent of structuralist analysis, with a particular interest in comparative religion. Her work bridged anthropology and broader questions of meaning, classification, and social order, earning her a reputation as one of the twentieth century's most original cultural thinkers.