Natural Symbols

Natural Symbols: Explorations in Cosmology by Mary Douglas, 167 pages

In the conventional view, as history progresses men naturally turn away from rote ritual in favor of more personal and meaningful expressions of social life and worship.  Ritual is viewed as something imposed by the strong upon the weak in order to reinforce the existing power relationships.  As Mary Douglas explains in this revelatory work, this simple narrative fails to account for either the diversity of ritual intensity and development among "primitive" peoples and the passionate connection to ritual of certain marginalized groups in the developed world.  Instead, she concludes, ritual is a vital part of the language of peoples with a strong sense of community and well-defined social roles, while populations that are more undifferentiated and individualistic reject ritual and prioritize inward states and expressive gestures.  Moreover, she suggests, this latter attitude not only reflects and enhances the alienation of the individual from society, but encourages a conception of the spirit as radically independent of, and naturally in opposition to, the body.

Douglas is very clear that she is building upon the work of a number of others, and this can be a bit disorienting for those not familiar with some of the thinkers and theories involved.  This is a small price for a study that so lucidly explicates much that would otherwise remain inexplicable, not least of all the ingrained, and often unexamined, hostility to ritual, both civic and religious, on the part of modern Western elites, both secular and ecclesiastic.