Social, Physical Symbolism And Cosmology - Read "natural Symbol" Comment On The Differences Of Two Versions

Mary Douglas was a famous English woman anthropologist, she was considered a firm Durkheimian. Douglas has two masterpieces, one is "Purity and Danger," which has been translated into Chinese, another "Natural Symbols", which has not been translated into Chinese. Natural symbol, namely the use of the human body as symbols to express the social structure and people's Cosmology. In this work, the natural symbols mean the human body used as symbols. In the "natural symbols", Douglas has two important contributions, one is the application of "grid and group" analysis framework for the typology of social division. On this basis, she divides societies into four types:"strong grid, strong group society," "strong grid, weak group society," "weak grid, strong group society," "weak grid, weak group society," Douglas believed that different type of societies correspond to different Cosmologies, Cosmology is essentially determined by social structure, different social structures produce different Cosmologies. The second contribution is that the social structure decided people's application of the body as symbols. Different social structures, people have different symbolic body applications. The body symbols of the society.Douglas's "Natural Symbols" reflects the reality of the background, there are two backgrounds, one is the world-wide revolutionary movement, one is global ideological confrontation. In the "Natural Symbols", she used the "millennial movement" to imply the revolutionary movement world-wide, and used the "witch-cleansing movement" to imply the global ideological confrontation. the ideal social structure for Douglas is a hierarchical structure, but with flexibility.Two versions of this "natural symbol" are compared in this paper. This paper argues that both of the version has flaws. In comparison, the second version has more obvious defects. The first version though rough, but the structure is of relative clarity, the second version looks more refined, but there are significant logical confusions, Douglas redefines the two key words of the grid-group analysis framework, "grid" and "group". But the entire system seems to be no corresponding change, so there are contradictions between the new definition and the old system. This paper concludes that the second version is a version of relative failure.Finally, a conclusion was drawn that Douglas was influenced by two academic traditions, one is the impact of the Catholic faith, one is thinking of Durkheim. Under the influence of these two areas, Douglas's anthropological thought has strong conservative tendencies, and this conservative trend runs through all the works of Douglas.