 |
Please help improve this article by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page. (August 2008) |
The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (French: Les formes élémentaires de la vie religieuse), published by French sociologist Émile Durkheim in 1912, is an analysis of religion as a social phenomenon. Durkheim attributes the development of religion to the emotional security attained through communal living.
According to Durkheim, early humans associated such feelings not only with one another, but with objects in their environment. This, Durkheim believed, led to the ascription of human sentiments and superhuman powers to these objects, in turn leading to totemism. The essence of religion, Durkheim finds, is the concept of the sacred, that being the only phenomenon which unites all religions.
Durkheim examined religion using such examples as Pueblo Indian rain dances, the religions of aboriginal tribes in Australia, and alcoholic hallucinations.
References
- Elementary Forms Of The Religious Life: Newly Translated By Karen E. Fields. ISBN 0029079373
- The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (Oxford World's Classics): Translated by Carol Cosman. ISBN 0199540128
 |
This article about a sociology-related book is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
External links
Find more about The Elementary Forms of The Religious Life on Wikipedia's sister projects:
Definitions from Wiktionary
Textbooks from Wikibooks
Quotations from Wikiquote
Source texts from Wikisource
Images and media from Commons
News stories from Wikinews
Learning resources from WikiversityOnline Copy:
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
