ABSTRACT

This is the first collection of essays to be published on Durkheim's masterpiece The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. It represents the work of the most important international Durkheim scholars from the fields of anthropology, philosophy and sociology. The essays focus on key topics including:
* the method Durkheim adopted in his study
* the role of ritual and belief in society
* the nature of contemporary religion
The contributors also explore cutting-edge debates about the notion of the soul and collective rituals.

chapter |12 pages

Introduction

ByN. J. Allen, W. S. F. Pickering, W. Watts Miller

chapter |16 pages

Spencer and Gillen in Durkheim

The theoretical constructions of ethnography
ByHoward Morphy

chapter |14 pages

Religion and Science in The Elementary Forms

ByRobert Alun Jones

chapter |13 pages

The Concept of Belief in the Elementary Forms

BySue Stedman Jones

chapter |12 pages

Durkheim, Kant, The Immortal Soul and God

ByW. Watts Miller

chapter |14 pages

The Cult of Images

Reading Chapter VII, Book II, of The Elementary Forms
ByGiovanni Paoletti

chapter |13 pages

Durkheim and Sacred Identity

ByKenneth Thompson

chapter |11 pages

Durkheim's Bourgeois Theory of Sacrifice

ByIvan Strenski

chapter |9 pages

Memory and The Sacred

The cult of anniversaries and commemorative rituals in the light of The Elementary Forms
ByWerner Gephart

chapter |13 pages

Effervescence and the Origins of Human Society

ByN. J. Allen

chapter |14 pages

Change, Innovation, Creation

Durkheim's ambivalence
ByDénes Némedi

chapter |14 pages

Durkheim and a Priori Truth

Conformity as a philosophical problem
ByTerry F. Godlove