ABSTRACT
Reprinted from African Worlds: Studies in the Cosmological Ideas and Social Values of African Peoples (London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1954). Mary Douglas is Reader in Anthropology at University College in London. She has conducted field research on several occasions in the Belgian Congo. In addition to many articles, she is the author of The Lele of Kasai, Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo, and Natural Symbols: Explorations in Cosmology.
