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 |16 pages

Spencer and Gillen in Durkheim

The theoretical constructions of ethnography

chapter |14 pages

The Cult of Images

Reading Chapter VII, Book II, of The Elementary Forms

chapter |9 pages

Memory and The Sacred

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

chapter |14 pages

Change, Innovation, Creation

Durkheim's ambivalence

chapter |14 pages

Durkheim and a Priori Truth

Conformity as a philosophical problem