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Professor Mary Douglas
"""[an] always rewarding collection covering topics as diverse as witchcraft, the usefulness of stigma, the misguided search for the historical Jesus, and the contrasting cultures and consequent effectiveness of Swedish and English trade unions . . . For my money, Douglas's sure grasp of how symbolism is tied to social relations is indispensable in making sense of contemporary religious conflict."" -""Commonweal ""Characteristic of Douglas' other works, these essays define cultural theory as ""a way of thinking about culture that draws the social environment systematically into the picture of individual choices,"" a ""method of analyzing public debates as positions taken in a conflict between cultures"" (xi). This definition is of value for how it frames a theory of culture that guides research while compelling us to recognize the real subject of our interest.."" ...""Douglas's arguments about the ideological bases of knowledge and consequently its necessary political implications are notonly eloquent but convincing. One can only admire the frankness with which she makes an (avowedly unpopular) case for ""hierarchy,"" and agree that those who appeal instead to abstract ""reason"" or ""justice"" are merely less forthright or less lucid."" -""Zygon"
