Title: Natural Symbols
First published: November 2002
Description: There are no such things as natural symbols. Every culture naturalises a certain view of the human body to make it carry social meanings. This work focuses on how the selections from blood, bones, breath or excrement, are made. Body symbolism is always in service to social intentions, and the body cannot be endowed with universal meanings.

In this now classic work Mary Douglas shows how certain forms of social life bring forth regularly the same varieties of symbolic expression. Hierarchy treats the body as a hierarchy; sect treats it as a closed system; individualism treats it as pervasive energy. Political movements as well as religions have their rituals, medicine, ethics, educational theory, aesthetics, a huge range of judgements fall into line behind the standard cultural bias.
Subjects: Ethnology, Religious aspects, Religion and sociology, Symbolism, Religion, Ritual, Mythology, Human body, Rites et cérémonies, Symbolisme, Human body, religious aspects, Body, Human, Religious aspects of the Human body, Religious aspects of Ethnology, Ethnology, religious aspects, Human body, folklore, Symbolen, Lichamelijkheid, Westerse wereld, Tribale groepen, Völkerkunde, Individuum, Gesellschaft, Symbolismus, Corps humain, Aspect religieux, Rituel, LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES, Communication Studies, Cosmologia, Simbolisme, Antropologia, Cos humà, Aspectes religiosos, Ethnology--religious aspects, Bl256 .d68 2003, 302.2/22, 73.85