''Implicit Meanings: Essays in Anthropology'' is a collection of essays written in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s by the influential

social anthropologist Social anthropology is the study of patterns of behaviour in human societies and cultures. It is the dominant constituent of anthropology throughout the United Kingdom and much of Europe, where it is distinguished from cultural anthropology. In t ...

and

cultural theorist Culture theory is the branch of comparative anthropology and semiotics (not to be confused with cultural sociology or cultural studies) that seeks to define the heuristic concept of culture in operationalism, operational and/or scientific metho ...

Mary Douglas Dame Mary Douglas, (25 March 1921 – 16 May 2007) was a British anthropologist, known for her writings on human culture and symbolism, whose area of speciality was social anthropology. Douglas was considered a follower of Émile Durkhei ...

Publication history

The volume ''Implicit Meanings'' was first published by

Routledge Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, and ...

in 1975 and was reprinted in 1978 and 1991. It went into a second edition in 1999, with revisions and additional material (including a new preface), which was reprinted in 2001, and again in 2003 as volume 5 of ''Mary Douglas: Collected Works'' (). The essays printed had originally appeared in journals, such as ''

Man A man is an adult male human. Prior to adulthood, a male human is referred to as a boy (a male child or adolescent). Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromos ...

'' or ''

Daedalus In Greek mythology, Daedalus (, ; Greek: Δαίδαλος; Latin: ''Daedalus''; Etruscan: ''Taitale'') was a skillful architect and craftsman, seen as a symbol of wisdom, knowledge and power. He is the father of Icarus, the uncle of Perdix, an ...

'', or as contributions to scholarly collections.

In the second edition, the volume contains 21 essays divided into three sections: "Essays on the Implicit", comprising essays from the 1950s, primarily about specific aspects of Lele culture and ending with "Looking Back on the 1950s essays"; "Critical Essays", comprising essays from the 1960s, often commenting directly on the work of other anthropologists, such as

Godfrey Lienhardt Ronald Godfrey Lienhardt (17 January 1921 – 9 November 1993) was a British anthropologist. He took many photographs of the Dinka people he studied. He wrote about their religion in ''Divinity and Experience: the Religion of the Dinka''. Lif ...

, and ending with "Looking Back on the 1960s essays"; and "Essays on the a priori", comprising essays from the 1970s, discussing risk, food, and the broader issues of categorization that were becoming one of Douglas's main intellectual concerns, and ending with "Looking Back on the 1970s essays". The essay "Jokes" was reprinted in ''Rethinking Popular Culture: Contemporary Perspectives in Cultural Studies'', edited by Chandra Mukerji and

Michael Schudson Michael S. Schudson Michael S. Schudson (born November 3, 1946) is professor of journalism in the graduate school of journalism of Columbia University and adjunct professor in the department of sociology. He is professor emeritus at the Universi ...

(1991), pp. 291–310.

Reviewers

Rodney Needham Rodney Needham (15 May 1923 – 4 December 2006 in Oxford) was an English social anthropologist. Born Rodney Phillip Needham Green, he changed his name in 1947; the following year he married Maud Claudia (Ruth) Brysz. The couple would collaborat ...

in ''

'', New Series, 11:1 (1976), pp. 127–128. * David Silverman,

Edward A. Tiryakian Edward is an English given name. It is derived from the Anglo-Saxon name ''Ēadweard'', composed of the elements '' ēad'' "wealth, fortune; prosperous" and '' weard'' "guardian, protector”. History The name Edward was very popular in Anglo-Sa ...

, Nanette J. Davis and Barry Schwartz in ''

The Sociological Quarterly ''The Sociological Quarterly'' (''TSQ'') is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by Taylor and Francis for the Midwest Sociological Society. It covers all areas of sociology and publishes both quantitative and qualitative research. ...

'', 19:2 (1978), pp. 355–368. * Barry Barnes and

Steven Shapin Steven Shapin (born 1943) is an American historian and sociologist of science. He is the Franklin L. Ford Research Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University. He is considered one of the earliest scholars on the sociology of scienti ...

, “Where Is the Edge of Objectivity?”, in ''

The British Journal for the History of Science ''The British Journal for the History of Science'' (a.k.a. ''BJHS'') is an international academic journal published quarterly by Cambridge University Press in association with the British Society for the History of Science. It was founded under ...

'', 10:1 (1977), pp. 61–66. * Bennetta Jules-Rosette in ''

Contemporary Sociology ''Contemporary Sociology'' is a bi-monthly peer-reviewed academic journal of sociology published by SAGE Publications in association with the American Sociological Association since 1972. Each issue of the journal publishes many in-depth as well as ...

'', Vol. 6, No. 5 (1977), pp. 554–555. *

Renato Rosaldo Renato Rosaldo (born 1941) is an American cultural anthropologist. He has done field research among the Ilongots of northern Luzon, Philippines, and he is the author of ''Ilongot Headhunting: 1883–1974: A Study in Society and History'' (1980) a ...

in ''

The American Journal of Sociology The ''American Journal of Sociology'' is a peer-reviewed bi-monthly academic journal that publishes original research and book reviews in the field of sociology and related social sciences. It was founded in 1895 as the first journal in its disc ...

'', Vol. 82, No. 5 (Mar., 1977), pp. 1152–1156.

External links

Preview of
''Implicit Meanings'' on

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. {{authority control 1975 books Books by Mary Douglas Anthropology books

Publication history

Contents

Reviewers

External links