Emile Durkheim
THE ELEMENTARY FORMS OF
RELIGIOUS LIFE (1912)
RELIGION & SOCIETY

The fundamental categories of thought, and
consequently of science, are based on religion

If religion has given birth to all that is essential
in society, it is because the idea of society is
the soul of religion
2
A FUNCTIONALIST THEORY OF RELIGION

Theory concerns the functional role of religion in society

The importance of ED's novel understanding of religion is
that it leads to a clarification of the nature of the
continuity between the traditional forms of society and the
modern

"In order to understand these new forms, one must
connect them with religious phenomena properly
speaking"
3
THEORY OF RELIGION BASED ON STUDY OF ONE
OF SIMPLEST, MOST PRIMITIVE RELIGIONS

Australian totemism
 the existence of supernatural divinities is not
essential to religion

there are systems of belief and practices which
we should quite properly call religious, but
where gods and spirits are absent or are of
minor importance
4
WHAT IS RELIGIOUS BELIEF CANNOT BE DEFINED
WITH REGARD TO THE CONTENT OF IDEAS

religion presuppose a classification of all things
known to men, real and ideal, into two classes,
two distinct kinds: the sacred and profane

the character of religious thought relies on the
notion of dichotomy itself
5
RELIGION ALWAYS INVOLVES PRESCRIBED
RITUAL PRACTICES & AN INSTITUTIONAL FORM
A religion is never simply a set of beliefs; it always
also involves prescribed ritual practices and a
definite institutional form
 There is no religion which does not have a church,
although the form which this assumes varies
widely


Church refers to the existence of a regularized ceremonial
organization pertaining to a definite group of worshippers

it does not imply that there is necessarily a specialized priesthood
6
RITUALS & SYMBOLS
The communal function of religion is carried
out through processes of ritualization and
symbolization
 Rituals & symbols reinforce shared values and
beliefs
 ritual: a formalized mode of behavior in which
the members of a community regularly engage
 symbol: a thing that represents or stands for
something else

DURKHEIM’S DEFINITION OF RELIGION

religion: a unified (solidaire) system of beliefs
and practices relative to sacred things, that is
to say, things set apart and forbidden - beliefs
and practices which unite into one single moral
community called a church, all those who
adhere to them.
8
THE EQUATION OF SOCIETY AND THE SACRED
MUST NOT BE MISUNDERSTOOD

ED does not argue that religion creates society
 this
would lead to a misinterpretation of his theory
as idealism

By contrast, ED says religion is the expression
of the self-creation, the autonomous
development, of human society
9
[GORDON MARSHALL © A Dictionary of
Sociology, Oxford University Press 1998]
COLLECTIVE REPRESENTATIONS
the ideas, beliefs, and values elaborated by a
collectivity, and which are not reducible to
individual constituents
 the sources of social solidarity
 created through the intense interaction of religious
rituals, and being richer than individual activities
they come to be autonomous of the group from
which they emerged
 collective representations help to order and make
sense of the world, but they also express,
symbolize and interpret social relationships

COLLECTIVE REPRESENTATIONS AS SOCIAL FACTS
The concept supersedes Durkheim’s earlier notion
of collective conscience, since collective
representations come to inhibit and stimulate
social action
 Their force or authority comes from their being
within all of us and yet external to the individual
 Assembly of an intense kind generates collective
representations, which then survive the
disintegration of this higher collective life as
sacred and therefore morally coercive beliefs,
values, and symbols

METATHEORETICAL MAP
Nonrational
Anomie
Collective conscience
Collective representations
Sacred and profane
Social solidarity
Mechanical solidarity
Organic solidarity
ORDER
Collective
Individual
Division of labor
A
C
T
I
O
N
Rational
12