Mary Tew Douglas, an anthropologist with wide-ranging interests, died on 16 May 2007. (See the obituary in the London Times.) Her book Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo (1966) [HL GN494 .D6] was a cross-cultural study of cleanliness, pollution and taboo and their roles in ritual systems. She argued that rather than being primarily about hygiene, these systems served to provide order to a perceived chaotic world. She applied this to the dietary codes of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, and has greatly influenced subsequent interpretation of these books.In her later years she turned to biblical interpretation with
- In the Wilderness: The Doctrine of Defilement in the Book of Numbers (JSOT, 1993; repr. Oxford, 2001)[HL BS1265.2 .D68 1993]
- Leviticus as Literature (Oxford, 1999) [HL BS1255.2 .D68 1999]
- Jacob's Tears: The Priestly Work of Reconciliation (Oxford, 2004) [HL BS1171.3 .D68 2004
Her latest book, Thinking in Circles: An Essay on Ring Composition (Yale, 2007) [HL PN212 .D68 2007], is a revision of her Terry Lectures at Yale in 2003. She used the term "ring compositions" to refer to chiastic (also called "pediment") literary structures which occur in more lengthy literary compositions, such as the Iliad, Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy, the book of Numbers, and certain Zoroastrian hymns.
