Rules and Meanings

Rules & Meanings

Paperback edition
Author	Mary Douglas
Original title	Rules and Meanings: The Anthropology of Everyday Knowledge. Selected Readings
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Subject	Cultural anthropology, Sociology of knowledge
Genre	Non-fiction
Publisher	Penguin Books
Publication date	1973
Media type	Print
Pages	320 pp.
ISBN
Preceded by	Natural Symbols
Followed by	Implicit Meanings

Rules and Meanings is an anthology of readings in cultural anthropology and the sociology of knowledge, edited by Mary Douglas and first published by Penguin Books in 1973 in their series Penguin Modern Sociology Readings. The full title is Rules and Meanings: The Anthropology of Everyday Knowledge. Selected Readings. The background to the selection and the treatment of the 45 excerpts provided was a course on cognitive anthropology taught by Douglas at University College London. She not only selected the readings, but also provided a general introduction to the volume and a brief introduction to each of the eight sections. The theme running throughout is that "reality is socially constructed".

A number of writers are represented by multiple excerpts in more than one section. Each is listed below only at first mention.