Mary Douglas (1921–2007) was an anthropologist and author of numerous influential works on human culture. These include The Lele of the Kasai (1963), Purity and Danger (1966), Natural Symbols (1970), Implicit Meanings (1970), Risk and Culture (1982 with Aaron Wildavsky), How Institutions Think (1986), Thought Styles (1996), Missing Persons (1998 with Stephen Ney), and Leviticus as Literature (1999). She received her doctorate from Oxford University and performed her early fieldwork in the Belgian Congo. Her academic career included appointments in Great Britain at Oxford University, University College London, University of London, and in the USA at Northwestern University, Princeton University, and the Russell Sage Foundation where she served as Director for Research on Culture.