Quote by Mary Douglas
The incipient institution needs some stabilizing principle to stop its premature demise. That stabilizing principle is the naturalization of social classifications. There needs to be an analogy by which the formal structure of a crucial set of social relations is found in the physical world, or in the supernatural world, or in eternity, anywhere, so long as it is not seen as a socially contrived arrangement. When the analogy is applied back and forth from one set of social relations to another, and from these back to nature, its recurring formal structure becomes easily recognized and endowed with self-validating truth... For discourse to be possible at all, the basic categories have to be agreed on. Nothing else but institutions can define sameness. Similarity is an institution.
Summary
This quote highlights the importance of establishing stability in the early stages of an institution. The author argues that a crucial way to achieve this is through naturalizing social classifications, finding analogies in the physical or supernatural world that are widely accepted as undisputable truths. By applying these analogies to various social relations and nature, a recurring pattern or structure emerges that is recognized and considered valid. The quote suggests that institutions rely on agreed-upon categories and definitions to enable discourse and continuity. It also emphasizes that even the notion of similarity is essentially an institution.
Topics
Society
By Mary Douglas
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