But this force remains ever present, living and true to itself. In almost-all clans there are objects, pieces of wood or polished stones, which bear a figurative representation of the totem. Religion is Violent - Rene Girard via E.T. Tylor considered the belief in spirit or invisible soul or ‘self as almost an inevitable result of a universal phenomenon such as dreams. When a number of sacred things maintain relations of co-ordination and sub-ordination with one another so as to form a system of the same kind, this body of corresponding beliefs and rites constitutes a religion. More generally Durkheim’s view of religion as socially determined led him to seek to establish causal relation between features of social structure and the content of religious believers and ritual practices. This collective sharing of beliefs, rituals etc. Where suicide focused on a large amount of statistics from varying sources, the elementary forms of Religious life used one case study in depth, the Australian aborigines. The interrelationships among the sacred beliefs, rites and church led Durkheim to give the definition of religion. (а) Sacred-Profane dichotomy is not universal. View this article's JSTOR metadata. Durkheim’s book “Elementary forms of Religious life” is devoted to elaborating a general theory of religion derived from an analysis of the simplest, most primitive religious institutions. Religion is society transfigured. 7. The Sacred brings out an attitude of reverence, respect, mystery, awe and honour. London: Routledge, 2000. Religious representations are collective representations which express collective reality. It is less relevant to modern societies where many cultures, social and ethnic groups, specialized organizations and a range of religious reliefs, practices and institutions exist. "Religion and Society: A Critique of Émile Durkheim's Theory of the Origin and Nature of Religion" is an article from The Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods, Volume 14. According to Durkheim, there are three types of ritual practices, following from specific sets of beliefs namely positive, negative and piacular practices or rites and practices of expiation. Transfiguration means society is given the shape of god or religion which we believe and start worshipping. Instead of Animism or Naturism Durkheim took the totemism among the Australian tribes as the key concept to explain the origin of religion. Piacular practices refer to the practice of awarding punishment to those who have deviated from the norms and dictates of established beliefs. An exaltation which occurs when social life is intensified.
Then it can be possible to go deeply into others including the religion in advanced society.
Durkheim’s concern about religion lay in the fact that it was one of the main agencies of solidarity and morality in society and was therefore parts of the central problem of social solidarity which he wished to explore. Religion provides social control, cohesion and purpose for people as well as another means of communication and gathering for individuals to interact and reaffirm social norms. London: Routledge, 1984. Durkheim also sought to identify the common things that religion placed an emphasis upon, as well as what effects those religious beliefs had on the lives of all within a society. Individuals die; generations pass away and are replaced by others. The respect accorded to certain phenomena transforms them from the profane to the sacred. The main critique of Durkheim is that it hasn’t necessarily held over time. Durkheim dedicated few fundamental elements such as the relationship between the individuals and society to the nature and social bond. To Durkheim, totemism reveals the essence of religion in its most elementary form. (e) In his theory Durkheim failed to give the weight-age to individual and emotional aspects of religion. The rest are defined as profane-the everyday, the common place, the utiliarian, the mundane aspects of life. Hence primitive men had to keep the ancestral ghosts in good humour if they were to act in his behalf.
He argued that a “society possessing the religious sentiment is capable of accomplishing unusual things, but it can hardly produce that sentiment out of itself.” 2. 1. Failure to recognize the injustice of such View this article on JSTOR. According to Durkheim, Religion is a division of the world into two kinds of phenomena. (c) Totem of the clan need not be the totem of the individual. The explanation of religion which Durkheim is about to provide amounts according to him to save the reality of religion. Religion hence presupposes first the sacred; next the organisation of beliefs regarding the sacred into a group ; finally rites or practices which proceed in a more or less logical manner from the body of beliefs. “A unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things that is to say, things set apart and forbidden—beliefs and practices which unite in one simple moral community called church, all those who adhere to it.” “Religion is an interdependent system of beliefs and practices regarding things which are sacred, that is to say, apart forbidden, beliefs and practices which unite all those who follow them in a single moral community called a church.” The concept of church is added to the concept of the sacred and to the system of beliefs in order to differentiate religion from magic, which does not necessarily involve the consensus of the faithful in one church.