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'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.
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First Sentence
IN order to identify the simplest and most primitive religion known to us from observation, we must first define what is meant by a religion. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
IN order to identify the simplest and most primitive religion known to us from observation, we must first define what is meant by a religion. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Durkheim's last major work contains discussions of, in their most highly developed forms, the main problems that consumed Durkheim at various points in his intellectual career; the problem of solidarity in an increasingly individualistic society, the sources and nature of the power of moral authority, his desire to cement sociology as a science, and his quest to expose the foundations and practical implications of social and scientific knowledge.
Firstly, Durkheim convincingly argues that religious phenomena is the symbolic arrangement by which society represents itself to its members and awakens the individual sentiments that account for the members relationship to that society. The last section of the work (Book III) contains Durkheim's symbolic theory regarding the resacralization of social life through the "collective ritual" of religious ceremony. The salience of this argument has led many Sociologists to return to Durkheim to try and explain where this symbolic "collective effervescence" might come from when the social conditions are those of unfamiliarity and differentiation; where society is characterized by the fragmentation of class, occupation, ethnic group, age, region and so on.
Implicit within the whole discussion is Durkheim's controversial theory of knowledge, in which he drives a middle ground between on the one hand, Kantian apiorism, which held that knowledge is inherant in the human intellect itself; and on the other, Humean empiricism, which attributed the acquisition of knowledge to human individual experience. Durkheim contests that religious thought is the origin of scientific thought, and that the former proceeds to the latter in a direct line of continuity. Supplementary to the main thesis is an insightful and perceptive introduction from translater Karen E. Field, in which she manages to significantly contribute to an already well-worn debate amidst the backdrop of her seductive and witty writing style. A compelling read from start to finish, social theorists who do not appreciate the quality of this perrennial classic are simply misguided - this master work deserves to be read and re-read.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Heralding the consolidation of modern sociology as an objective and scientific discipline within the Humanities, the works of Emile Durkheim reach a fascinating and approachable culmination in The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. It provides an important conceptual foundation to the history of French Intellectualism over the course of the twentieth century and is an eminently worthy departure in understanding suceeding writers such as Marcel Mauss, Robert Hertz, the Structural Marxists of the 1960s, and Claude Levi-Strauss.
His efforts in establishing sociology as a serious and pursuable academic discipline are of an invaluable and profound scope. Seeking to place the subject on a similar standing to that of the Natural Sciences and the nascent Psychology, Durkheim essentially came to analyse society in much the same way that a psychoanalyst would analyse an individual patient. He implemented several objective tools in this pursuit, such as the conception of the social fact and the social consciousness, and came to understand the influences of different parts of society upon the individual and the whole and how they related to one another.
Within the Elementary Forms of Religious Life Durkheim applies this almost psychological perspective to the operation of religion within societies and groups. Although both rich and fascinating in its myriad accounts of differing rituals and practices, the greatest power of the book is invariably its ability in looking past the subjective and surface values of religion and observing instead the universal structures and phenomenon which unite its purposes to all of humanity. It seeks, in an anthropological vein, to understand and analyse the "simplest" and "earliest" of religious practices so as to garner a greater idea of how more "complex" and more "global" religions function.
In brief, any student of the social sciences will benefit greatly from reading the book and gaining a firmer understanding of the history of their discipline - as an academic text it reveals much of where modern theories such as structuralism were gestated for example. Yet equally, to those with more of a broad interest, particularly concerning the nature of religion and its place in the modern world, the Elementary Forms of Religious Life offers both theory and praxis in objectively understanding the hidden structures of why humanity has had such a great need for religion throughout its history, and why, in a sense, "If God did not exist, there would be a need to invent him."
His efforts in establishing sociology as a serious and pursuable academic discipline are of an invaluable and profound scope. Seeking to place the subject on a similar standing to that of the Natural Sciences and the nascent Psychology, Durkheim essentially came to analyse society in much the same way that a psychoanalyst would analyse an individual patient. He implemented several objective tools in this pursuit, such as the conception of the social fact and the social consciousness, and came to understand the influences of different parts of society upon the individual and the whole and how they related to one another.
Within the Elementary Forms of Religious Life Durkheim applies this almost psychological perspective to the operation of religion within societies and groups. Although both rich and fascinating in its myriad accounts of differing rituals and practices, the greatest power of the book is invariably its ability in looking past the subjective and surface values of religion and observing instead the universal structures and phenomenon which unite its purposes to all of humanity. It seeks, in an anthropological vein, to understand and analyse the "simplest" and "earliest" of religious practices so as to garner a greater idea of how more "complex" and more "global" religions function.
In brief, any student of the social sciences will benefit greatly from reading the book and gaining a firmer understanding of the history of their discipline - as an academic text it reveals much of where modern theories such as structuralism were gestated for example. Yet equally, to those with more of a broad interest, particularly concerning the nature of religion and its place in the modern world, the Elementary Forms of Religious Life offers both theory and praxis in objectively understanding the hidden structures of why humanity has had such a great need for religion throughout its history, and why, in a sense, "If God did not exist, there would be a need to invent him."
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
13 reviews
61 of 64 people found the following review helpful
The Elements of Religious Life - Durkheim
12 Jun 2000
Format:Paperback
This book is a sociological text written by Durkheim. One of the forefathers of Sociology, he believed that to study sociology you must identify social phenomena and then trace it to its origins to see how it came about. This for Durkheim was the only way to understand society.
In this book he examines the origins of religion. He explains that religion develops from the collective feelings of security we gain from living in a group, and these feelings are very powerful and important to us. However, early tribes passed these feelings onto which ever object they were close to at the time of experiencing the emotions, or the most frequent object in their area. The object could include a plant, vegetable or an animal, which would then be represented in a carving of stone or wood and then worshipped. This for Durkheim is the beginning of totemism, the first religion.
He follows on to discuss how our first religion gave us an understanding of the world around us, our conception of space and time. For Durkheim 'the framework of our intelligence' is made up of the concepts of space, time, numbers and our existence, and they were born 'in religion'.
Durkheim's writing is suprisingly easy to read and very enjoyable. His examination of early societies gives much insight into their lives and how they understood the world to be. For anybody studying Durkheim, this book is a good topic area to concentrate on. However, for anybody interested in theology or in early societies, it is a fascinating read. I read this book as part of my degree course and, although I borrowed it from the library, even after my course has ended I am now buying my own copy to reread.
I recommend this book to a wide range of readers, not only those interested in sociology. Read it, you'll be suprised!
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Abridged... why?
7 Feb 2010
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I, too am disappointed that the new edition is abridged. One reviewer noted that only about 30 pages were taken out, but for serious readers, students, and teachers, it is important to have the book exactly as Durkheim wrote it. I am a professor of sociology and I suppose this edition would be OK for teaching (the introduction is fantastic), but for my own scholarship, I could not depend on it
because I am unsure what has been excised and the rationale. This is not just the idle complaint of a pedant - this is one of the most important books in the history of modern social thought and there is no excuse for abridging it, especially when the cover DOES NOT note that it is abridged. In a classic, every word counts.
because I am unsure what has been excised and the rationale. This is not just the idle complaint of a pedant - this is one of the most important books in the history of modern social thought and there is no excuse for abridging it, especially when the cover DOES NOT note that it is abridged. In a classic, every word counts.
18 of 21 people found the following review helpful
WARNING: THIS EDITION IS ABRIDGED
1 Jun 2008
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Durkheim's "Elementary Forms of the Religious Life" is one of the deepest books I've ever read, but I will leave others to speak of that.
I would like to complain about this particular edition, the "Oxford's World Classics" edition. (This review has apparently been published elsewhere. The edition I'm talking about is a yellow-and-red "Oxford's World's Classics" paperback with a black-and-white photo of Durkheim looking off to his left.)
I have long been looking to replace my worn-out edition, and thought this offering (published 2001) would answer nicely. (Is it just me, or has this book been plagued with editions that have flimsy binding?)
Unfortunately, Amazon buries an important piece of information in its "Editorial Reviews" section: this edition is abridged.
Now, it's lightly abridged. The original, which I have a hand, is only slightly longer than what you're getting here.
Which is what puzzles me: why did they bother to abridge this at all? Printing the entire text would only have added about 30 pages to the thing. The lines they have disincluded seem, at least upon my examination, no more irrelevant or abstruse than what they've decided to include.
Puzzling.
There are some good things about this edition, though. There are explanatory footnotes at the end of the text: useful glosses, not those "textual comparison" kind. (The footnotes on the bottom of each page are Durkheim's own.) There is a 29-page introduction. There is also an ethnographic map of Australia. But the biggest plus for me is that the (paperback) binding is super-sturdy and promises to last through many reads.
This is the translation by Carol Cosman, done in 2001 specifically for this edition.
I would like to complain about this particular edition, the "Oxford's World Classics" edition. (This review has apparently been published elsewhere. The edition I'm talking about is a yellow-and-red "Oxford's World's Classics" paperback with a black-and-white photo of Durkheim looking off to his left.)
I have long been looking to replace my worn-out edition, and thought this offering (published 2001) would answer nicely. (Is it just me, or has this book been plagued with editions that have flimsy binding?)
Unfortunately, Amazon buries an important piece of information in its "Editorial Reviews" section: this edition is abridged.
Now, it's lightly abridged. The original, which I have a hand, is only slightly longer than what you're getting here.
Which is what puzzles me: why did they bother to abridge this at all? Printing the entire text would only have added about 30 pages to the thing. The lines they have disincluded seem, at least upon my examination, no more irrelevant or abstruse than what they've decided to include.
Puzzling.
There are some good things about this edition, though. There are explanatory footnotes at the end of the text: useful glosses, not those "textual comparison" kind. (The footnotes on the bottom of each page are Durkheim's own.) There is a 29-page introduction. There is also an ethnographic map of Australia. But the biggest plus for me is that the (paperback) binding is super-sturdy and promises to last through many reads.
This is the translation by Carol Cosman, done in 2001 specifically for this edition.
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