Books by Mary Douglas
“She tried to understand through everyday examples how we deal with things that are polluting, dangerous or dirty. Her classic aphorism is that dirt is simply matter out of place. A pair of shoes standing in the hallway? Fine. Put them on the table? Dirty. Her idea was that we have to understand the world around us and how we try to put order back into the world. How do we organise away those impurities, pollution, dirt? It’s a really beguiling book that took years to take off, but has now informed how later generations study issues like insecurity and danger.” Read more...
The best books on Anthropology
Ruben Andersson, Social Scientist
Interviews where books by Mary Douglas were recommended
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1
Flexible Bodies: Tracking Immunity in American Culture from the Days of Polio to the Age of AIDS
by Emily Martin -
2
Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo
by Mary Douglas -
3
Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection
by Anna Tsing -
4
The Anti-Politics Machine: Development, Depoliticization, and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho
by James Ferguson -
5
The Incarcerations: BK16 and the Search for Democracy in India
by Alpa Shah
The best books on Anthropology, recommended by Ruben Andersson
The best books on Anthropology, recommended by Ruben Andersson
Anthropologists look for cultural and political currents reflected in everyday behaviours, says Ruben Andersson, the Oxford academic and author of a new book about the contemporary obsession with self-protection, Age of Security. Here, he recommends five anthropology books that have influenced his work and writing—and reflects on the difficulties of recognising patterns in our own thinking.
The best books on Ancient History in Modern Life, recommended by Mary Beard
Mary Beard, Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge, talks us through the books that have had the deepest impact on her thinking about the ancient world and explains why studying Classics is absolutely relevant to modern life.
