It would be absurd to leave the impression that a book as bold and original as The Elementary Forms has been immune to strong criticisms. Quite the contrary. From the moment of its publication it came under a good deal of attack, just as all of Durkheim's major works did, starting with The Division of Labour. In his study of religion, as in his other studies, critics found an emphasis upon the metaphysical reality of society that was often unacceptable. The disregard of, or submergence of, the individual is undoubtedly the major charge against Durkheim to be found in all the critical literature generated by his waiting. It was said too that his study of the Australian aborigines lacked the authoritative-ness which can come only from direct, field acquaintance with a given people or culture. (To be sure, this criticism applies equally to such notable students of religion as Tyior, Frazer, and also Freud whose Totem and Taboo appeared one year after Durkheim's work and also focused on the Australians.) Durkheim's sharp distinction between religion and magic on the ground that the latter does not produce communal ties ("there is no church of magic") has also come under assault by a number of ethnolo-
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gists. Even Radcliffe-Brown, who was to become one of Durk-heim's strongest and most fertile admirers so far as method was concerned, found Durkheim's interpretation of Australian totem-ism seriously defective. Finally, and with much force, it has been said that use of one people, however intensively it may be studied, as "confirmation" of any theory of the nature of religion is an abuse of scientific method.
In all of these criticisms there is assuredly some degree of validity. It would be preposterous—and also alien to the basic scientific spirit that motivated Durkheim—to assert that the final answer, assuming there even can be a final answer, to the problem of the origin and nature of religion lies in this book. It is, however, the unfailing mark of the classic, whether in science or in literature or art, that in the long run it not only survives against, but even draws a certain degree of added strength and lustre from, criticisms of the magnitude which have been made of The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. Criticisms notwithstanding, the eminence of this book in the circles of those concerned with the scientific understanding of religion is not only as great as, if not actually greater than, it was when it first appeared, but one need only examine in the most cursory fashion the line of distinguished works reaching to the present moment that has been, in one degree or other, inspired by Durkheim's treatment of the sacred, to be made aware of its continuing intellectual power.
ROBERT NISBET
New York, 1975
CONTENTS
Introduction by Robert Nisbet
INTRODUCTION
SUBJECT of our STUDY : RELIGIOUS SOCIOLOGY and the THEORY of KNOWLEDGE
I.—Principal subject of the book : analysis of the simplest religion known. to determine the elementary forms of the religious life—Why they are more easily found and explained in the primitive religions
II.—Secondary subject of research: the genesis of the fundamental notions of thought or the categories—Reasons for believing that their origin is religious and consequently social—How a way of restating the theory of knowledge is thus seen .
BOOK I
PRELIMINARY QUESTIONS
CHAPTER I
DEFINITION of RELIGIOUS PHENOMENA and of RELIGION
Usefulness of a preliminary definition of religion; method to be followed in seeking this definition—Why the usual definitions should be examined first
Religion defined by the supernatural and mysterious—Criticism: the notion of mystery is not primitive
I.— Religion defined in connection with the idea of God or a spiritual being………………. II.—Religions without gods—Rites in deistic religions which imply no idea of divinity……. III.—Search for a positive definition—Distinction between beliefs and rites—Definition of beliefs—First characteristic: division of things between sacred and profane—Distinctive characteristics of this definition—Definition of rites in relation to beliefs—Definition of religion
……….
IV.—Necessity of another characteristic to distinguish magic from religion—The idea of the Church—Do individualistic religions exclude the idea of a Church ? ……………………………….
CHAPTER II
LEADING CONCEPTIONS of the ELEMENTARY RELIGION
I.—Animism
Distinction of animism and naturism
I.—The three theses of animism : Genesis of the idea of the soul; Formation of the idea of spirits ; Transformation of the cult of spirits into the cult of nature. ………………………………48
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II.—Criticism of the first thesis—Distinction of the idea of the soul from that of a double— Dreams do not account for the idea of the soul ……………………………………..……………55
III.—Criticism of the second thesis—Death does not explain the transformation of a soul into a spirit—The cult of the souls of the dead is not primitive …………………………………...60 IV.—Criticism of the third thesis—The anthromoporphic instinct— Spencer's criticism of it; reservations on this point—Examination of the facts by which this instinct is said to be proved— Difference between a soul and the spirits of nature—Religious anthropomorphism is not primitive………………………………………………………………………………………………
… 65
V.—Conclusion : animism reduces religion to nothing more than a system of hallucinations
……………………………………………………………………………………………………...68
CHAPTER III
LEADING CONCEPTIONS OF THE ELEMENTARY RELIGION—(continued} II.—Nafurism History
of the theory ………………………………………………………………………………………..71 I.—Exposition of Max Miiller's naturism …………………………………………………73
II.—If the object of religion is to express natural forces, it is hard to see how it has maintained itself, for it expresses them in an erroneous manner—Pretended distinction between religion and mythology
…………………………………………………………………………………….78
III.—Naturism does not explain the division of things into sacred and
profane …………………………………………………………………………………...84
CHAPTER IV
TOTEMISM AS AN ELEMENTARY RELIGION
I.—Brief history of the question of totemism ……………………………………………..88 II.—Reasons of method for which oar study will be given specially to the totemism of Australia—The place which will be given to facts from America
……………………………………93
BOOK II
THE ELEMENTARY BELIEFS
CHAPTER I TOTEMIC BELIEFS The Totem as Name and as Emblem
I.—Definition of the clan—The totem as name of the clan—Nature of the things which serve as totems—Ways in which the totem is acquired —The totems of phratries ; of matrimonial classes ……………………………………………………………………………………………..102
II.—The totem as emblem—Totemic designs engraved or carved upon
objects; tattooings or designs upon the body ……………………………………………...113 III.—Sacred character of the totemic emblem—The churinga—The
nurtunja—The waninga—Conventional character of totemic emblems…………………. 119 CHAPTER II TOTEMIC BELIEFS—(continued)
The Totemic Animal and Man
I.—Sacred character of the totemic animals—Prohibition to eat them, kill them or pick the totemic plants—Different moderations given these prohibitions—Prohibition of contact—The sacred character of the animal is less marked than that of the emblem
…………………………….128
II.—The man—His relationship with the totemic animal or plant— Different myths explaining this relationship—The sacred character of the man is more apparent in certain parts of the organism : the blood, hair, etc.—How this character varies with sex and age— Totemism is not plant or animal worship
………………………………………………………………………………..134
CHAPTER III TOTEMIC BELIEFS—(continued) The Cosmological System of Totemism and the Idea of Class
I.—The classification of things into clans, phratries and classes …………………………141
II.—Genesis of the notion of class : the first classifications of things take their forms from society—Differences between the sentiment of the differences of things and the idea of class—Why this is of social origin…………………………………………………………………………….. 144 III.—Religious significance of these classifications: all of the things classified into a clan partake of the nature of the totem and its sacred character—The cosmological system of totemism—Totemism as the tribal religion
……………………………………………………………148
CHAPTER IV TOTEMIC BELIEFS—(end} The Individual Totem and the Sexual Totem I.—Individual totem as a forename ; its sacred character—Individual totem as personal
emblem—Bonds between the man and his individual totem—Relations with the collective totem
...157
II.—The totems of sexual groups—Resemblances and differences with the
collective and individual totems—Their tribal nature ……………………………………165
CHAPTER V
ORIGINS of these BELIEFS
Critical Examination of Preceding Theories
I.—Theories which derive totemism from a previous religion : from the ancestor cult (Wilken and Tyior) ; from the nature cult (Jevons)— Criticism of these theories………………...168 II.—Theories which derive collective totemism from individual totemism— Origins attributed by these theories to the individual totem (Frazer, Boas, Hill Tout)—Improbability of these hypotheses—Reasons showing the priority of the collective
totem………………………………… 172
III.—Recent theory of Frazer : conceptions! and local totemism—The begging of the question upon which it rests—The religious character of the totem is denied—Local totemism is not primitive …………………………………………………………………………………………..180 IV.—Theory of Lang: that the totem is only a name—Difficulties in explaining the religious character of totemic practices from this point of view ……………………………………………184
V.—All these theories explain totemism only by postulating other religious
notions anterior to it ………………………………………………………………………186
CHAPTER VI
ORIGINS OF THESE BELIEFS—(continued) The Notion of the Totemic Principle, or Mana, and the Idea of Force
I.—The notion of the totemic force or principle—Its ubiquity—Its character at once physical and moral ……………………...…………………………………………………………………..188
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II.—Analogous conceptions in other inferior societies—The gods in Samoa, the wakan of the Sioux, the orenda of the Iroquios, the mana of Melanesia—Connection of these notions with totemism—The Arun-kulta of the Arunta…………………………………………………………191 III.—Logical priority of impersonal force over the different mythical personalities—Recent theories which tend to admit this priority …………………………………………………………198
IV.—The notion of religious force is the prototype of that of force in general …………..203
CHAPTER VII ORIGINS OF THESE BELIEFS—{end) Origin of the Idea of the Totemic Principle or Mana
I.—The totemic principle is the clan, but thought of under a more empirical form ……....205
II.—General reasons for which society is apt to awaken the sensation of the sacred and the divine—Society as an imperative moral force; the notion of moral authority—Society as a force which raises the individual outside of himself—Facts which prove that society creates the sacred………..……..……..……..……..……..……..……..……..……..……..……..……….……..2 06
III.—Reasons peculiar to Australian societies—The two phases through which the life of these societies alternatively passes : dispersion, concentration—Great collective effervescence during the periods' of concentration—Examples—How the religious idea is bom out of this effervescence Why collective force has been thought of under totemic forms : it is the totem that is the emblem of the clan—Explanation of the principal totemic beliefs……..……..……..…….……..……..……..…….……..……..……..…….……..……………2
14
IV.—Religion is not the product of fear—It expresses something real—Its essential idealism—This idealism is a general characteristic of collective mentality—Explanation of the external character of religious forces in relation to their subjects—The principle that the part is equal to the whole……………………………………………………………………………………………….… ……..219
V.—Origin of the notion of emblem : emblems a necessary condition of collective representations—Why the clan has taken its emblems from the animal and vegetable kingdoms……….223
VI.—The proneness of the primitive to confound the kingdoms and classes which we distinguish—Origins of these confusions—How they have blazed the way for scientific explanations—They do not exclude the tendency towards distinction and opposition
……………………….
CHAPTER VIII
THE IDEA OF THE SOUL
I.—Analysis of the idea of the soul in the Australian societies …………………………...240 II.—Genesis of this idea—The doctrine of reincarnation according to Spencer and Gillen : it implies that the soul is a part of the totemic principle—Examination of the facts collected by Strehlow ; they confirm the totemic nature of the soul …………………………………………..246
III.—Generality of the doctrine of reincarnation—Diverse facts in support
of the proposed genesis …………………………………………………………………..256 IV.—Antithesis of the soul and the body : what there is objective in this— Relations of the individual soul with the collective soul—The idea of the soul is not chronologically after that of mana ………………………………………………………………………………………………262
V.—Hypothesis to explain the belief in its survival .. ……………………………………267
VI.—The idea of a soul and the idea of a person : impersonal elements in the personality
…………………………………………………………………………………………..…………269
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CHAPTER IX THE IDEA OF SPIRITS AND Gons
I.—Difference between a soul and a spirit—The souls of the mythical ancestors are spirits, having determined functions—Relations between the ancestral spirit, the individual soul and the individual totem— Explanation of this latter—Its sociological significance …………………….273
II.—Spirits and magic …………………………………………………………………...281 III.—The civilizing heroes ………………………………………………………………..283 IV.—The great gods—Their origin—Their relations with the totemic system—Their tribal and international character …………………………………………………………………..……285
V.—Unity of the totemic system …………………………………………………………295
BOOK III
THE PRINCIPAL RITUAL ATTITUDES
CHAPTER I
THE NEGATIVE CULT AND ITS FUNCTIONS ТИЕ ASCETIC RITES
I.—The system of interdictions—Magic and religious interdictions— Interdictions between sacred things of different sorts—Interdictions between sacred and profane—These latter are the basis of the negative cult—Leading types of these interdictions ; their reduction to two essential types
……………………………………………………………………………………………………..299 II.—The observance of interdictions modifies the religious state of indivi-viduals—Cases where this efficacy is especially apparent: ascetic practices—The religious efficacy of sorrow—