Durkheim III:
Collective Conscience, Religion, Suicide
February 13, 2012
Instructor: Sarah Whetstone
MINI-PAPERS DUE!
please
“The Elementary Forms of Religious Life”
Key Concepts
oDefinition of Religion
oTotemism
oSacred V. Profane
oCollective Effervescence V. Collective Conscience
oCollective Representations
oD’s evolutionary metaphor –and- functionalist view of religion
Religion: The Origins of Collective Conscience
• RELIGION: “A unified system of beliefs and practices relating to sacred
things … which unite into one single moral community called a church all
those who adhere to them.”
• Durkheim studies religion as the fundamental institution of social life, upon
which the collective identity is structured.
• Religion unites members through the creation of a collective conscience.
All religious expression is founded on the identification of members to a
group.
• Shared religious beliefs and values also reinforce the strength of the
collective conscience.
Why did Durkheim study “primitive” society to understand
religion?
• Simplicity allows for analysis of
“essential” features.
• “Everything is common to all.
Movements are stereotyped;
Everybody performs the same ones
in the same circumstances, and this
conformity of conduct only translates
to the conformity of thought” (183).
• These societies are different enough
from our own experience that we are
able to see important features.
Totemism
Why did Durkheim study “primitive” society to understand
religion?
– Early development can be observed, and change traced over time. (Evolutionary
model)
– Durkheim looked for “the elements which constitute that which is permanent and
human in religion; they form all the objective contents of the idea which is
expressed when one speaks of religion in general” (182).
Collective Effervescence
– “Effervescence” is when we feel we are a part of something bigger
than ourselves:
• “Vital energies are over-excited, passions more active, sensations stronger… A
man does not recognize himself; he feels himself transformed, and
consequently he transforms the environment that surrounds him” (188).
– How is this different from collective conscience?
Sacred V. Profane
• Religion is defined by the cultural distinction
between the sacred and profane.
• Sacred – objects extraordinary and set apart
• Profane – everyday, ordinary objects
• Notions of the sacred are given external
representation through objects or symbols, called
collective representations.
Model of
religious evolution
Temporary
gatherings
occur
Powers are
attributed
to “mana”
Interaction
escalates
Crowd
stimulation,
heightened
emotions,
and
collective
contagion
occur
Sense of
common
sentiments
that are
external
and
constraining
1. Psychological
Totems
need to
promote a
represent
sense of
mana with a
unity and
material object
solidarity
2. Structural
among
need for clan
members
solidarity
Permanent groupings
Mana is
symbolized
by totem
and by
sacred
objects of
totem
Source: Turner et al. (2002), Emergence
of Sociological Theory, p. 353
Religion and Collective Conscience
• These social categories shape how we think and orient ourselves to world: time, space,
quality . . .
• Establish our basic categories of thought!
– “If men did not agree upon these essential ideas at every moment… all contact
between their minds would be impossible, and with that, all life together. Thus
societies could not abandon the categories to the free choice of the individual
without abandoning itself” (185).
• Collective conscience guides human action!
– “We have the feeling that we cannot abandon them if our whole thought is not to
cease being fully human” (85).
Function of Religion?
• Religion is a way of expressing and reaffirming shared social beliefs, a
functional element of society.
• “There can be no society which does not feel the need of upholding and
reaffirming at regular intervals the collective sentiments and collective
ideals… This moral remaking cannot be achieved except by the means of
reunions, assemblies, and meetings where individuals reaffirm their
common sentiments” (190).
Small Group Discussion: Other Institutions as
“Religions”
– Pick another social institution (ex. Education) and apply Durkheim’s theory of the
elementary forms of religion to it.
– What are some examples of the sacred and the profane in your institution?
(Beliefs, values, cultural objects, etc.)
– Describe the group that it defines – Whose collective conscience does the
institution reinforce?
– What are some important collective representations of the “religion?”
– Describe the positive and negative rituals associated with the institution– how do
members reaffirm their membership?
“Suicide” (1897): Key Concepts
oSuicide as a Social Fact
oAnomic Division of Labor (leftover from “Division of Labor”)
oIntegration
oRegulation
oFour Types of Suicide:
oAltruistic
oEgoistic
oAnomic
oFatalistic
oAnomie
Suicide as Social Fact
(data from World Health Organization)
Suicide rate is a social fact– social
cause/social effect
Rates are stable across time
Durkheim found low rates of suicide:
When religious integration is high
(Catholics < Protestants)
When domestic integration is high
(Married < Unmarried)
When political integration is high
(Rural < Urban)
Example of US suicide rate- fairly stable
over time.
Anomic Division of Labor
• How can we be more bonded to one another when we are
further splintered by division of labor and specialization?
• D says (p. 176): Rules emerge from the DOL because it sets
up definite ways of acting that are repeated on a daily basis,
turning into regular, stable habit. “Then the habits, as they
grow in strength, are transformed into rules of conduct.”
• This produces a real form of solidarity, interdependence
built on shared, regular expectations (duties, rights,
obligations) that are built up and extended across time.
• “If the division of labor does not produce solidarity, it is
because the relationships between the organs are not
regulated; it is because they are in a state of anomie” (176177).
Durkheim’s Argument in “Suicide”
oUnlike animals, human desire is “unlimited,” – there is no internal check on needs and desires (p 194).
oThe “passions… must be limited,” but this must be done by some force exterior to the individual (194-95).
oThis exterior force must be the common (collective conscience) because it is the “only moral power superior to the
individual, the authority of which he accepts” (195).
oRegulation through collective conscience is required to ensure that people will accept their position in life, because true
social equality is impossible (196).
oAnomie occurs when societies break down or “pass through some abnormal crisis,” people are “not adjusted to the
conditions forced on them,” and social bonds/collective conscience fail to do work of regulating (197).
ANOMIE
-a lack of regulation occurring with breakdown of (mostly economic) order in modern life-
• Anomie is a constant feature of modern life
• “Since this disorder is greatest in the economic world, it has most of its
victims there” (200).
• Industrial and commercial functions have the greatest number of suicides
– and – “the possessors of most comfort suffer most” (201).
• What is D’s general argument here?
– When economic order is functional, it “reins in individual passions” by setting
limits on desires and socializing people to be comfortable in their position
Altruistic Suicide – Excessive Integration
Jonestown Massacre, 1978
Egoistic Suicide – Low Integration
Anomic Suicide –
Low Regulation
Fatalistic Suicide – Excessive Regulation
Unnamed slave woman, who on
Dec. 19, 1815, jumped out of the
garret window of a three-story
brick house and survived.
1838 issue of American Anti-Slavery Almanac, which
illustrated a passage from Charles Ball’s “Slavery in the
United States” (New York, 1837) that describes Ball’s
encounter with the slave Paul. Paul had “suffered so much
in slavery, that he chose to encounter the hardships and
perils of a runaway.”
Anomic or Fatalistic Suicide?
We are broke. Last April I was
worth $100,000. Today I am
$24,000 in the red.
IN-CLASS ACTIVITY:
Marx v. Durkheim on Economic Order
Compare Marx and Durkheim on the social structure of the class hierarchy. Use
passages from “Suicide” to summarize Durkheim’s position, then apply a Marxist
critique. (Focus on pages195,198, 199, and top of 201.)
Answer, citing specific quotes from reading:
How is Durkheim’s view of economic order functional? (v Marx)
 Describe D’s functionalist view on poverty– Contrast to Marxist “alienation”
Describe role of religion in class-based society, according to D (v Marx)
How does D say that expansion of free market society has “backfired,”
undermining economic order? (v Marx)
How would each theorist “fix” the problems of modern life?