The elementary forms of religious life

by Durkheim, Émile

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Title Statements

Full title :The elementary forms of religious life / Emile Durkheim ; translated by Carol Cosman ; abridged with an introduction and notes by Mark S. Cladis.

Summary

Overview: In The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912), Emile Durkheim sets himself the task of discovering the enduring source of human social identity. He investigates what he considered to be the simplest form of documented religion - totemism among the Aborigines of Australia. For Durkheim, studying Aboriginal religion was a way 'to yield an understanding of the religious nature of man, by showing us an essential and permanent aspect of humanity'. The need and capacity of men and women to relate to one another socially lies at the heart of Durkheim's exploration, in which religion embodies the beliefs that shape our moral universe. The Elementary Forms has been applauded and debated by sociologists, anthropologists, ethnographers, philosophers, and theologians, and continues to speak to new generations about the intriguing origin and nature of religion and society. This new, lightly abridged edition provides an excellent introduction to Durkheim's ideas.

Edition Statements

Publication Date:2008, c2001.

Publication Statements

Publisher(s):Oxford University Press
Place of Publication:Oxford
Language:eng
Publication Date:2008, c2001.

Notes

Translation of: Formes élémentaires de la vie religieuse.

The Physical Object

Description:xli, 358 pages : : maps ; : 20 cm.

Edition Identifiers

ISBN:9780199540129, 0199540128
oclc:on1121658847
LC Classification:GN470
Dewey Decimal:306.6

Introduction -- Note on the text -- Select bibliography -- Chronology of Emile Durkheim -- Map -- Elementary Forms Of Religious Life: -- Introduction -- Book 1: Preliminary questions: -- Definition of the religious phenomenon and of religion -- Leading conceptions of elementary religion: Animism -- Leading conceptions of elementary religion: Naturism -- Totemism as elementary religion: historical review of the question, method of treating it -- Book 2: Elementary beliefs: -- Central totemic beliefs: totem as name and emblem -- Central totemic beliefs: the totemic animal and man -- Central totemic beliefs: the cosmological system of totemism and the notion of genus -- Central totemic beliefs: the individual totem and the sexual totem -- Origins of these beliefs: a critical examination of the theories -- Origins of these beliefs: the notion of the totemic principle or mana, and the idea of force -- Origins of these beliefs: the genesis of the notion of the totemic principle or mana -- Notion of soul -- Notion of Spirits and Gods -- Book 3: Principal ritual conduct: -- negative cult and its functions: ascetic rites -- Positive cult: the element of sacrifice -- Positive cult: mimetic …