Natural Symbols: Explorations in Cosmology (first published 1970) is an influential book by the British cultural anthropologist Mary Douglas

Mary Douglas

Dame Mary Douglas, DBE, FBA was a British anthropologist, known for her writings on human culture and symbolism....

. Further editions were published in 1973, 1982, 1996, 2003. It was also published in 2003 as volume 3 in Mary Douglas: Collected Works (isbn 0415291062).

Theoretical innovation

It was in Natural Symbols that Douglas introduced the "group-grid" theory, with "group" indicating how clearly defined an individual's social position is as inside or outside a bounded social group, and "grid" indicating how clearly defined an individual's social role is within networks of social privileges, claims and obligations. The group-grid pattern was later to be refined and redeployed in laying the foundations of the cultural theory of risk

Cultural Theory of risk

The Cultural Theory of risk, often referred to simply as Cultural Theory , consists of a conceptual framework and an associated body of empirical studies that seek to explain societal conflict over risk...

.

Reviews

Natural Symbols was reviewed by:

• K. O. L. Burridge in Man
  Man (journal)
  Man was a journal of anthropological research, published in London between 1901–1994 by the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. For first sixty-three volumes from its inception in 1901 up to 1963 it was issued on a monthly basis, moving to bi-monthly issue for the...
  
  , New Series, 5:3 (1970), p. 530;
• David Martin in British Journal of Sociology
  British Journal of Sociology
  The British Journal of Sociology is an academic journal, founded in 1950 at the London School of Economics. The main founders were the sociologists Morris Ginsberg and Thomas Humphrey Marshall. Their intended title, "The London Journal of Sociology", seems to have been changed by the publisher...
  
  , 21:3 (1970), pp. 343-344;
• David R. Bell in The Philosophical Quarterly
  The Philosophical Quarterly
  The Philosophical Quarterly is a quarterly academic journal of philosophy established in 1950. It is published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Scots Philosophical Club and the University of St Andrews. The current editor-in-chief is Tim Mulgan. Every year the journal holds an Essay...
  
  , Vol. 22, No. 88 (1972), pp. 280-282;
• Shlomo Deshen in American Journal of Sociology
  American Journal of Sociology
  The American Journal of Sociology was established in 1895 by Albion Small and is the oldest academic journal of sociology in the United States. The journal is attached to the University of Chicago's sociology department and it is published bimonthly by The University of Chicago Press. Its...
  
  , 77:1 (1971), pp. 163-166;
• Martin G. Silverman in American Anthropologist
  American Anthropologist
  American Anthropologist is the flagship journal of the American Anthropological Association . It is known for publishing a wide range of work in anthropology, including articles on cultural, biological and linguistic anthropology and archeology...
  
  , New Series, 73:6 (1971), pp. 1293-1295;
• Anthony Storr
  Anthony Storr
  Anthony Storr was an English psychiatrist and author. Born in London, he was a child who was to endure the typical trauma of early 20th century boarding schools. He was educated at Winchester College, Christ's College , and Westminster Hospital. He qualified as a doctor in 1944, and subsequently...
  
  , "The Ritual of Language and Vice Versa", in Chicago Tribune
  Chicago Tribune
  The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
  
  , June 28, 1970.

Sources

• Albert James Bergesen, "Rituals, Symbols, and Society: Explicating the Mechanisms of the Moral Order", a review essay in American Journal of Sociology
  American Journal of Sociology
  The American Journal of Sociology was established in 1895 by Albion Small and is the oldest academic journal of sociology in the United States. The journal is attached to the University of Chicago's sociology department and it is published bimonthly by The University of Chicago Press. Its...
  
  , 83:4 (1978), pp. 1012-1021 (also dealing with Mary Douglas's earlier work, Purity and Danger
  Purity and Danger
  Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo is the best known book by the influential anthropologist and cultural theorist Mary Douglas. In 1991 the Times Literary Supplement listed it as one of the hundred most influential non-fiction books published since 1945...
  
  ).
• Richard Fardon, Mary Douglas: An Intellectual Biography (London: Routledge, 1999), ch. 5.

External links

• 2002 edition on google books. Accessed 22 March 2010.