Is Mary Douglas's Grid/Group Analysis Useful for Cross-Cultural Research?

Abstract

During the 1970s, anthropologist Mary Douglas developed a twodimensional framework for cultural comparisons: (a) grid or constraint by rules, and (b) group or incorporation into a bounded social unit. According to Douglas and her colleagues, the four grid/ group types constitute stable social configurations that are associated with distinctive values or ideologies: individualism, fatalism, hierarchy, and egalitarianism. The theory has inspired a great deal of elaboration, numerous intrasocietal studies, some controlled comparisons between social units in different societies, and some limited cross-national studies. Although plausible, the framework has not been subjected to extensive cross-cultural testing. This article addresses a preliminary question in the more rigorous crosscultural testing of the framework: Are grid, group, and ideology empirically separate dimensions as Douglas contends? A pilot study employing factor analysis of precoded variables from the 60-culture Human Relations Area Files (HRAF) probability sample file suggests that they may be. Further steps in testing this theoretical framework are proposed.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 52 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.