Psychocultural Anthropology:
EMILE DURKHEIM (1858-1917)

Durkheim pioneered the disciplines of
sociology and social psychology.

He was an empiricist and positivist, and so
grounded his work in statistics.

Works: The Division of Labor in Society (1893).
Suicide, a study in sociology (1897).
 The Elementary Forms of Religious Life
 (1912)
CHIEF CONCEPTS

Collective Consciousness/Conscience – People
in primitive societies are inculcated with the
same values, norms and beliefs as children,
they therefore will unconsciously think and act
the in same way as adults.

Primitive societies exhibit mechanical solidarity.
People don’t require formal institutions to
function in this type of society.

Industrial societies are held together by
economic interdependence. They come to be
composed of people with varied values,
aspirations, and beliefs due to the existence of
varied social classes. He termed this type of
integration organic solidarity.

What kind of society did Durkheim consider to
be more dysfunctional?
DIVISION OF LABOR IN SOCIETY: PROGRESSIVE PREPONDERANCE OF
ORGANIC SOLIDARITY: IT’S CONSEQUENCES, PG. 172

“This is not to say..that the common conscience
is threatened with total disappearance. Only,
that it more and more comes to consist of very
general and very indeterminate ways of
thinking and feeling, which leaves an open
space for a growing multitude of individual
differences. There is even a space where it is
strengthened and made more precise: that is in
the way that it regards the individual.”

Anomie – This is a evolving condition of societies
held together by organic solidarity, the result of an
individual’s inability to comprehend the totality of
conditions in the wider society as it grows more
complex, and of poor communication between
sodalities such as classes or trade groups.

In Suicide Durkheim expanded the meaning to
reflect an environment where normal social
constraints and expectations are done away with
by a change in economic circumstances (good or
bad), or divorce.
DURKHEIM’S TAKE ON SUICIDE

In his study of suicide, Durkheim discounted
the effects of:

Mental illness and alcoholism.

Climate/latitude (“cosmic factors”).

“Race” and ethnicity.
He noted that those at higher risk of killing
themselves were
 Men.
 Residents of Large Cities.
 Protestants.
 Older.
 Of higher social standing and education levels.
 Lacking children.


“We thus reach the conclusion that the
superiority of Protestantism with respect to
suicide results from its being a less strongly
integrated church than the Catholic church.
This also explains the situation of Judaism.
Indeed the reproach to which the Jews have for
so long been exposed by Christianity has
created feelings of unusual solidarity among
them.”
He came up with the following classes of
suicide:
 Egoistic suicide “…we may call egoistic the
special type of suicide springing from excessive
individualism.” Found in societies with organic
solidarity.
 Altruistic suicide - found in societies with
mechanical solidarity.
 Anomic suicide, including conjugal anomic
suicide. This is the source of modern “strain
theory” in sociology and psychology.

PROBLEMS WITH DURKHEIM’S STUDY
Tendentious.
 Used statistics from secondary sources.
 Used statistics of highly questionable quality
and consistency.
 Ignored sources of reporting bias –
cultural/religious attitudes towards mental
illness and suicide.
 Did not examine individual cases to deduce
motivations and circumstances.

THE LEGACY OF DURKHEIM
‘Why more elderly
Asian women kill
themselves.’
LA Times, Sept.
2000
MAKING SENSE OF A SENSELESS ACT, SCIENCE
MARA HVISTENDAHL NOV. 23 2012
200,000 Chinese kill themselves annually,
accounting for 22% of global total. (187,000
Indians kill themselves yearly).
 Chinese women kill themselves more often than
men by a ratio of 5:4.
 Only 48% of Chinese suicides show mental illness.
 Rural Chinese kill themselves more often than
urban Chinese.
 Married Chinese kill themselves more often than
unmarried Chinese.

Of the global suicide toll, a large proportion occurs in developing countries.
M Hvistendahl Science 2012;338:1025-1027
Published by AAAS
Accurate statistics in China on suicide only date
to 1980, due to social stigma. Indian Million
Death Study has revealed past reporting bias.
Explanations – Jie Zhang
Chinese suicides are marked by impulsiveness.
Impulsive suicides choose lethal means.
Strain theory – “When a person is pulled by two
or more conflicting pressures..as with a girl who
learns Confucian values at home and then goes
to school and learns about modern values of
gender equality she may be more prone to
suicide.”