Mary Douglas was born in Italy on March 25^th, 1921 and died May 16^th 2007 at the age of 86. She was a renowned British social anthropologist who published many different works throughout her life (Encyclopedia Britannica 2020). She grew up with her sister, Patricia and was raised by her grandparents following the death of their mother, Phyllis. Growing up, Mary was drawn to education and eventually registered for her doctorate in anthropology in 1949 at Oxford (Fardon 2007). In 1951 Mary married to James Douglas. They lived in London together and had three children. While in London, she worked as a lecturer of anthropology at University College. Later in life, she traveled around the United States where she worked as a director of research on human culture as well as a professor in anthropology and religion at various universities (Encyclopedia Britannica 2020).

Mary began her first venture into anthropological fieldwork in the Belgian Congo (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) in 1949 (Cengage 2020). While there, she studied the social structure of the people and their society. This resulted in the publishing of one of her earlier ethnographies The Lele of the Kasai in 1963 (Fardon 2007). After her time spent in the Belgian Congo, any further fieldwork had to be put on hold as war got in the way.

One of Mary’s most prolific writings came in the form of Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. Published in 1966, this would prove to be an influential piece of literature in the anthropology world for years to come. Mary introduced the idea that objects out of place are what we consider as pollution or dirty which is all based around the ideas of the community you are in (Leathem 2020). For example, a pair of sneakers can be seen as dirty when they are placed on a clean bed, but are perfectly fine when placed on a shoe rack. In this way, a society influences what is seen as abnormal and what isn’t. She then makes the claim that cleanliness is not inherently based off of hygiene itself as many people would assume, but rather individual rituals that different cultures practice (Leathem 2020). This would then guide the ways that people react to these situations and fleshes out what becomes normal and taboo within that group of people.