The elementary forms of religious life (engelsk)

Émile Durkheim

Detaljer

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Beskrivelse

'If religion generated everything that is essential in society, this is because the idea of society is the soul of religion.' In The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912), Émile Durkheim set himself the task of discovering the enduring source of human social identity. He investigated what he considered to be the simplest form of documented religion - totemism among the Aborigines of Australia. Aboriginal religion was an avenue '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 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 origin and nature of religion and society. This new, lightly abridged edition provides an excellent introduction to Durkheim's ideas.

Indhold

Seneste udgave, bog

pt. 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 -- pt. 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 -- pt. 3. Principal ritual conduct. Negative cult and its functions : ascetic rites -- Positive cult : the element of sacrifice -- Positive cult : mimetic rites and the principle of causality -- Positive cult : representative of commemorative rites -- Piacular rites and the ambiguity of the notion of the sacred -- Appendix : Select List of anthropologists and ethnologists who informed Durkheim''s work