Mary Douglass

Dame Mary Douglas (born Mary Tew) was a prominent British anthropologist renowned for her influential works on human culture, symbolism, risk, and concepts of purity and danger, particularly in her seminal 1966 book *Purity and Danger*. Educated at Oxford, she conducted fieldwork in the Belgian Congo and held positions at institutions like University College London and Oxford, bridging anthropology with sociology and social psychology. She received honors including DBE and CBE, and her ideas continue to shape anthropological discourse.