The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life — Émile Durkheim
You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org . If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title : The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life Author : Émile Durkheim Translator : Joseph Ward Swain Release date : November 13, 2012 [eBook #41360] Most recently updated: October 23, 2024 Language : English Other information and formats : www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/41360 Credits : Produced by Ruth Morrison, Tor Martin Kristiansen and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) *** START OF A. LONDON GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD RUSKIN HOUSE MUSEUM STREET FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1915 SECOND IMPRESSION 1926 THIRD IMPRESSION 1954 FOURTH IMPRESSION 1957 FIFTH IMPRESSION 1964 This book is copyright under the Berne Convention. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, 1956, no portion may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Enquiry should be made to the publisher. © George Allen & Unwin Ltd. 1915 PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY HOLLEN STREET PRESS LTD LONDON W.1 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION Subject of our Study: Religious Sociology and the Theory of Knowledge PAGE I.—Principal subject of the book: analysis of the simplest religion known to determine the elementary forms of the religious life—Why they are more easily found and explained in the primitive religions 1 II.—Secondary subject of research: the genesis of the fundamental notions of thought or the categories—Reasons for believing that their origin is religious and consequently social—How a way of restating the theory of knowledge is thus seen 9 BOOK I PRELIMINARY QUESTIONS CHAPTER I Definition of Religious Phenomena and of Religion Usefulness of a preliminary definition of religion; method to be followed in seeking this definition—Why the usual definitions should be examined first 23 I.—Religion defined by the supernatural and mysterious—Criticism: the notion of mystery is not primitive 24 II.—Religion defined in connection with the idea of God or a spiritual being.—Religions without gods—Rites in deistic religions which imply no idea of divinity 29 III.—Search for a positive definition—Distinction between beliefs and rites—Definition of beliefs—First characteristic: division of things between sacred and profane—Distinctive characteristics of this definition—Definition of rites in relation to beliefs—Definition of religion 36 IV.—Necessity of another characteristic to distinguish magic from religion—The idea of the Church—Do individualistic religions exclude the idea of a Church? 42 CHAPTER II Leading Conceptions of the Elementary Religion I.— Animism Distinction of animism and naturism 48 I—The three theses of animism: Genesis of the idea of the soul; Formation of the idea of spirits; Transformation of the cult of spirits into the cult of nature 49 II.—Criticism of the first thesis—Distinction of the idea of the soul from that of a double—Dreams do not account for the idea of the soul 55 III.—Criticism of the second thesis—Death does not explain the transformation of a soul into a spirit—The cult of the souls of the dead is not primitive 60 IV.—Criticism of the third thesis—The anthropomorphic instinct—Spencer's criticism of it; reservations on this point—Examination of the facts by which this instinct is said to be proved—Difference between a soul and the spirits of nature—Religious anthropomorphism is not primitive 65 V.—Conclusion: animism reduces religion to nothing more than a system of hallucinations 68 CHAPTER III Leading Conceptions of the Elementary Religion —( continued ) II.— Naturism History of the theory 71 I.—Exposition of Max Müller's naturism 73 II.—If the object of religion is to express natural forces, it is hard to see how it has maintained itself, for it expresses them in an erroneous manner—Pretended distinction between religion and mythology 78 III.—Naturism does not explain the division of things into sacred and profane 84 CHAPTER IV Totemism as an Elementary Religion I.—Brief history of the question of totemism 88 II.—Reasons of method for which our study will be given specially to the totemism of Australia—The place which will be given to facts from America 93 BOOK II THE ELEMENTARY BELIEFS CHAPTER I Totemic Beliefs The Totem as Name and as Emblem I.—Definition of the clan—The totem as name of the clan—Nature of the things which serve as totems—Ways in which the totem is acquired—The totems of phratries; of matrimonial classes 102 II.—The totem as emblem—Totemic designs engraved or carved upon objects; tatooings or designs upon the body 113 III.—Sacred character of the totemic emblem—The churinga—The nurtunja—The waninga—Conventional character of totemic emblems 119 CHAPTER II Totemic Beliefs —( continued ) The Totemic Animal and Man I.—Sacred character of the totemic animals—Prohibition to eat them, kill them or pick the totemic plants—Different moderations given these prohibitions—Prohibition of contact—The sacred character of the animal is less marked than that of the emblem 128 II.—The man—His relationship with the totemic animal or plant—Different myths explaining this relationship—The sacred character of the man is more apparent in certain parts of the organism: the blood, hair, etc.—How this character varies with sex and age—Totemism is not plant or animal worship 134 CHAPTER III Totemic Beliefs —( continued ) The Cosmological System of Totemism and the Idea of Class I.—The classification of things into clans, phratries and classes 141 II.—Genesis of the notion of class: the first classifications of things take their forms from society—Differences between the sentiment of the differences of things and t