Food in the Social Order: Studies of Food and Festivities in Three American Communities, Volume 9

Mary Douglas

Psychology Press, 2003 - Social Science - 292 pages

First published in 1984, This work is a cross-cultural study of the moral and social meaning of food. It is a collection of articles by Douglas and her colleagues covering the food system of the Oglala Sioux, the food habits of families in rural North Carolina, meal formats in an Italian-American community near Philadelphia. It also includes a grid/group analysis of food consumption.

Contents

• Introduction: 1
• Metaphysical Aspects of an Oglala Food System: 95
• Meal Formats Meal Cycles and Menu: 143
• Measurement of Calendrical Information: 219
• Index: 279

About the author

Born in Italy, Mary Douglas was educated at Oxford University and began her career as a civil servant in 1943. Her first field research was carried out in what was then the Belgian Congo and she taught at Oxford and the University of London before moving to the United States in 1977. Purity and Danger (1966) is an essay about the logic of pollution beliefs, suggesting that ideas about dirt and disorder outline and reinforce particular social orders. Her other essays exploring the implicit meanings of cultural symbols follow a similar Durkheimian format. Her recent interests have turned to analysis of risk behavior and cross-cultural attitudes about food and alcohol.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Food in the Social Order: Studies of Food and Festivities in Three American Communities, Volume 9; Volume 9 of Collected works, Mary Douglas Mary Douglas; Volume 9 of Collected works, Mary Douglas; Food in the Social Order: Studies of Food and Festivities in Three American Communities, Mary Douglas, ISBN 0415283973, 9780415283977; Volume 9 of Mary Douglas: Collected Works, Mary Douglas, ISBN 0415283973, 9780415283977; Volume 9 of Selections, Mary Douglas; Volume 9 of Works, Mary Douglas
• Author: Mary Douglas
• Editor: Mary Douglas
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Psychology Press, 2003
• ISBN: 0415291127, 9780415291125
• Length: 292 pages
• Subjects: Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural & Social; Social Science / Archaeology; Social Science / Reference