The point of literary criticism in anthropology is not to replace research, but to find out how it is that we are persuasive.

A religion is a system of symbols which acts to establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods in men by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing those conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic.

I've often been accused of making anthropology into literature, but anthropology is also field research. Writing is central to it.

I don't think things are moving toward an omega point; I think they're moving toward more diversity

Learning to exist in a world quite different from that which formed you is the condition, these days, of pursuing research you can on balance believe in and write sentences you can more or less live with.

A scholar can hardly be better employed than in destroying a fear.

I do think the attempt to raise consciousness has succeeded. People are very aware of gender concerns now