Implicit Meanings: Selected Essays in Anthropology

by Mary Douglas

'No more sparkling and suggestive work of social science is likely to appear in the near future. This book provides a splendid answer as to why anthropology goes on mattering and also to why no surgery can separate it from sociology ' -The Economist from the reviews of the first edition This new edition of a classic work provides an excellent introduction to the thought of anthropologist Mary Douglas. First published to great acclaim in 1975, Mary Douglas has now revised the text to include additional chapters and a new introduction.
Implicit Meanings includes writings on the key themes which are associated with Mary Douglas's work and which have had a major influence on anthropological thought, such *food *pollution *risk *animals *myth. Among the new pieces inluded in this edition The Lele of the Kasai * Techniques of Socrcery Control in Central Africa * The Lele Revisited * Obituary of Godfrey Lienhardt * The Depolitzation of Risk * Rightness of Categories

Genres: Anthropology, Nonfiction, Social Science

Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

Reviews

[Tom Muddiman]

A very interesting and engaging broad sweep across Mary Douglas's work. Some of it (particularly the latest chapters) very difficult to follow but with some very deep and reflective thinking about the nature of rules, symbols, regulation with implications across social science.

[Jeremy]

Douglas explains jokes in terms of "anti-ritual" (5).