The elementary forms of religious life
The elementary forms of religious life. The totemic system in Australia ( Les formes élémentaires de la vie religieuse. Le système totémique en Australie ) is a book published in 1912 by Émile Durkheim .
It deals with the question of the nature of religion . With this work, Durkheim forms the basis for a functionalist view of religion by defining its function as the foundation of social cohesion and identity as its essential core element. Following Durkheim, individual representatives of the sociology of religion interpret as religion everything that fulfills such functions in different societies. On the other hand, there is a substantial concept of religion, which fixes religion to certain content-related features (ideas of transcendence, formation of priestly roles, etc.).
History of origin, influences
Durkheim did not only deal with the subject of 'religion' in the context of this book, but many years earlier. In the development of his sociological theory in general and religious-sociological views in particular, three scholars essentially exerted a great influence:
- On the one hand the Breton ancient historian Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges , who in his main work La cité antique (1884) emphasizes the cult of ancestors as an essential link of the ancient society grouped around the family in the broader sense.
- Second, there is the German national psychologist Wilhelm Wundt , whom Durkheim met on his study trip to Germany in Leipzig and whose new approach to moral research he presented to the francophone world in his own scientific article ( La Science Positive de la Morale en Allemagne 1887). In Wundt's view, morality is responsible for integrating the individual into a larger social context.
- For Durkheim's exploration of religion, however, the year 1895 must be cited as the decisive turning point in his life, when he met the third great scholar, William Robertson Smith . Durkheim himself describes the situation as follows: “It was in 1887 that I read Wundt: but it was not until 1895 that I had a clear awareness of the central role of religion in social life. It was in that year that I first found the means of starting the study of religion sociologically. That was a revelation for me. […] 1895 marked a demarcation line in the development of my thinking. [...] The reason for this was exclusively religious-historical studies that I had just undertaken and especially reading the work of Robertson Smith and his school “By Robertson Smith, who attempted a reconstruction in his book Lectures on the Religion of the Semites (1898) the religion of this family of peoples, Durkheim adopted above all the knowledge of the difference between a public and a private religion and the totemistic sacrifice theory, with regard to the area of totemism in particular, the following four main ideas:
- The primitive religion is a clan cult .
- This clan cult is totemic.
- The god of the clan is the spiritualized clan itself.
- Totemism is the most elementary and most original known form of religion.
Durkheim's approach is a direct continuation and development of the views of Fustel de Coulanges and Robertson Smith; both already represented a structural theory of the emergence of religion from elementary society. Durkheim also wanted to explain the process of creation.
In the first volume of L'Année Sociologique , published in 1898, Durkheim set up a separate section for the area of ' sociology of religion ' and published a series of articles on this topic in the first two volumes of this journal (including in the second volume 1899 the title De la définition des phénomènes religieux a first approach to a definition of religion , more precisely of religious facts ( faits réligieux ), a term that is formed analogously to the faits socieux ; further reference is made to two smaller works on totemism ( La prohibition de l'inceste 1898 and Sur le totémisme 1902), which can be viewed as preliminary studies for his main work in the sociology of religion). Until the last edition of the magazine (1913), the section on religion remained the largest and most important. The great interest in religion is astonishing at first sight when you consider that Durkheim is a representative of secularism ; on this point he can be compared with Max Weber . Durkheim wanted to prove that religion lacks any transcendence and is rather based on a rational basis that represents the social structure of a society; for this reason religion also evolves out of society. With this approach, Durkheim also becomes a pioneer of the sociology of knowledge , since religion is seen here as the origin and support of social knowledge structures. It is therefore hardly surprising that Durkheim's theory also became one of the essential influencing factors for the sociological considerations of Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann , which are presented in detail in their book The Social Construction of Reality .
content
(A detailed description of the content is only given in the methodological-theoretical passages of the first book that are relevant to the history of science; all quotations from The Elementary Forms of Religious Life in this section relate to the first edition of the book and are only shown with an indication of the page number. )
- Introduction: object of investigation (pp. 17–42)
- First Book: Introductory Questions (pp. 43–140)
- Second Book: The Elementary Beliefs (pp. 141–401)
- Third book: The most important ritual attitudes (pp. 403–555)
- Summary (pp. 555–597)
After De la division du travail social (1893) and Le suicide (1897), Les formes élémentaires de la vie religieuse (1912) is the third major book written by Durkheim. It is certainly the most significant and influential. The extensive, almost 600-page work is divided into three books. In the preceding introduction, the "object of investigation" is first outlined. Durkheim formulates two goals of his book: The main purpose is to analyze the elementary forms of religious life by studying the "most primitive and simplest" religion (which are now referred to as ethnic religions ). The second aim is to present the emergence of basic concepts of thought and the categories , why they are of religious and thus also social origin and how an epistemology can ultimately be derived from them.
In the first book, entitled 'Introductory Questions', Durkheim first sets out the necessary theoretical foundations and discusses them. The first chapter offers a definition of the religious phenomenon and religion (in general), because this is necessary "to find out the most primitive and simplest religion" (p. 45). The argument takes place in several stages: First, two conventional approaches are presented (I. The religion is defined as the supernatural and the mysterious; II. The religion is defined in terms of an idea of God), but then immediately refuted (ad I. The concept of the supernatural is first of more recent origin and has “nothing primitive about it” (p. 49); ad II. There are also religions without gods). Then Durkheim goes in search of a positive definition in the following section (III). It seems to him more expedient to define religion not in its entirety as a system, but first of all the elementary phenomena: Religious phenomena can be divided into two categories: beliefs and rites, the former representing opinions and the latter modes of action. Since rites relate to specific goals found in beliefs, it is necessary to determine belief before the rite. A division of the world into two areas is assumed: profane and sacred . Durkheim defines the terms introduced as follows (p. 67):
- Sacred things: "what the prohibitions protect and isolate"
- Profane things: "What do these prohibitions relate to and who must keep their distance from sacred things"
- Religious Beliefs: "Concepts that express the nature of sacred things and the relationships they hold with one another or with profane things"
- Rites: "Rules of conduct that dictate how people should behave towards sacred things"
As a preliminary definition of religion , the lines of thought presented result in “the sum of convictions and the corresponding rites”. However, this suggestion has the problem that it can be applied equally to magic . The solution to the problem arises through the inclusion of the concept of the church ("A society whose members are united because they imagine the holy world and its relations with the profane world in the same way and translate these ideas into the same practices" (p . 71)), because while every religion has a church, there is no permanent relationship in magic between the individual and the magician. In the end, Durkheim comes to the following definition: "A religion is a solidarity-based system of beliefs and practices that relate to holy, that is, separate and forbidden things, beliefs and practices that exist in one and the same moral community called the church, unite all who belong to it. ”(p. 75)
With the help of this definition, Durkheim now sets out to investigate elementary religion and first checks in the following two chapters (2 and 3) whether the two most important conceptions of elementary religion at the time, animism and naturism (natural mythology), meet the criteria . Animism, whose main exponents include Edward B. Tylor and Herbert Spencer , is a belief in spirits that proceeds from an animated nature; Naturism (natural mythology), founded by Friedrich Max Müller , postulates a reverence for transfigured natural forces by man. Durkheim examines both theses in detail, ultimately refuting them because, in his opinion, they dissolve the subject. Religions, on the other hand, cannot be illusions, because then religious studies would not be a science either, because this discipline is characterized by the fact that it relates to a given reality.
For Durkheim society alone represents a reality sanctified by itself and that is why totemism is for him the simplest religion par excellence. In the final 4th chapter of the first book, he gives a brief historical overview of the history of this system and gives methodical considerations for the (regional) selection of that group that is exemplary for a phenomenon common to all societies and that is the main part of the considerations. Durkheim is not concerned with examining a multitude of religious manifestations, rather he wants to depict the religious by describing an individual case that functions as a prototype.
The approach that totemism is the most elementary form of religion implies that all other forms have evolved from it. All previous work on totemism has dealt intensively with totemism in North American societies, but in Durkheim's opinion this does not represent the ideal field of research because it has "already passed the purely totemic phase" (p. 131). However, totemism can also be found in Australia . New discoveries by Walter Baldwin Spencer and Francis James Gillen ( The Native Tribes of Central Australia 1899; The Northern Tribes of Central Australia 1904) and their extensive publications (supplemented by the sometimes divergent points of view of the missionary Carl Strehlow and the anthropologist Moritz von Leonhardi ) make it possible now for the first time a comprehensive insight into the functioning of a totemic religion and therefore this region is Durkheim's main field of observation. Despite the focus on this continent, however, the situation in North America should not be completely lost sight of. In his opinion, a comparison made in this way is entirely legitimate because the central elements of the social structure , namely the clan organization , are similar in both areas .
After this introductory section, which makes up about a quarter of the work, there now follows an extensive presentation of the religion of (Australian) totemism, divided into two parts, the first of which represents the elementary beliefs (2nd book). It starts with the definition and description of the terms clan and totem (Chapters 1 to 4), followed by an examination of theories that derive totemism from an even earlier form of religion, followed by their refutation (Chapter 5). Following this, the totem principle ( mana ) is presented (Chapters 6 and 7), followed by the analysis of the concept of the soul (Chapter 8), a climax of the work. Finally, the 9th chapter is devoted to ' spirits and the concept of God'.
The totem (usually symbolized by an animal or a plant) represents the gathering. Through the veneration he is given, he transforms the individual individuals into a moral community and welds them together. Durkheim understands the totem principle to mean the idea of an impersonal power (denoted by the term mana , taken from Melanesian ), which is present in every individual as a soul , connects it with the sacred and thus constitutes the beginning of religious thought.
Totemism thus fulfills the two important functions of religion demanded by Durkheim: the embodiment of society (the totems are a symbol of the clan, they are the god of the clan and the totem principle can therefore be nothing other than the clan itself, p. 284 ) and the emergence of categories of knowledge ("Because people were divided into groups, they could group things", p. 202).
After the beliefs, the second part of the study in the third book is a description of the ritual practices . He distinguishes the negative (chapters 1 and 2), the positive (chapters 3 and 4) and atonement rites (chapter 5). The negative rites mainly include prohibitions; positive rites are community rites. The purpose of all rites is to maintain the community, to strengthen the feeling of togetherness of the group and to preserve the faith.
Durkheim's argument comes to an end; the extensive descriptions have shown that, despite the simplicity of the system (this does not correspond to reality; Durkheim made a mistake on this point; cf. the following section (2.3.3 Critique)) "all great ideas and all main ones Ritual attitudes […]: the division of things into sacred and profane; rediscover the concept of the soul, the spirit, the mythical personalities, the national and even the supranational deity ”(p. 556) etc. Durkheim now goes a step further and claims that the results obtained are not limited to totemism alone, but can be assumed for religion in general. He countered a possible point of criticism, namely the restriction to a single religion, with the argument “that a proof is generally valid if a law has been proven by a correctly carried out experiment” (p. 556).
criticism
Durkheim was already in the crossfire of criticism during his lifetime, halfway between two poles. On the one hand there was the group of 'believers' (both Catholics and Protestants ) who accused him of restricting religion to just a social component and of denying the existence of (a) god. With all concentration on the social, individual and spiritual areas would be completely disregarded. As an example, reference is only made to the criticism of Gaston Richard ( L'Athéisme dogmatique en sociologie religieuse 1923) Durkheim's former colleague, who left the group around L'Année Sociologique due to increasing disputes . On the other hand, there were extreme rationalists who were convinced that religion was an illusion at all, an ideology in the Marxist sense, or at best only a secondary role in society, such as Gustave Belot , who believed that religion was made up of it of ethics have been developed.
In the period that followed, a number of well-known scholars examined Durkheim's work The Elementary Forms of Religious Life and took a critical stance on it: These include Alexander Aleksandrovich Goldenweiser ( Early Civilization 1922), Wilhelm Schmidt ( Der Ursprung der Gottesidee 1930), and Alfred Kroeber , Edward E. Evans-Pritchard ( Theories of Primitive Religion 1965) or a little later the German religious ethnologist Josef Franz Thiel ( Religionsethnologie 1984).
Schmidt (1930: 579ff.) Wonders why Durkheim was so rigidly committed to the religious nature of totemism at the time when most researchers were already rejecting its alleged connection with religion. Schmidt also criticizes Durkheim's focus on Australian totemism, while its global distribution and diversity were already well known. In addition, the Aranda in Central Australia are by no means the 'archetype' postulated by Durkheim, but represent the youngest segment of the population, as Schmidt himself has established through a detailed analysis of the languages (cf.The structure of the Australian languages and their relationship to the sociological structure of the Australian Tribes 1919). In the oldest stratum, however, including the Kurnai in the southeast of the continent, there would be no totemism at all.
In his criticism, Evans-Pritchard (1981: 105ff.) Above all draws attention to deficiencies and inconsistencies in the ethnographic evidence: - the rigid dichotomy of the sacred and the private cannot be maintained; rather, both spheres are connected and cannot be separated - the groups relevant for the investigation cannot be clans , but have to be bands or tribes (Evans-Pritchard refers at this point to the prevailing chaos in the terminology for political groups of Australian ethnic groups) - Australian totemism was an atypical, specialized form and one could therefore not infer totemism in general; the choice made is too selective; Durkheim's explanation of differently developed forms of totemism does not hold up; the assumption that Australian totemism is an archetypal form is arbitrary - Durkheim's assumption that totemism is essentially a religion of the clans is untenable, because there are peoples, the clans but no totems and others, the totems but none Have clans.
Thiel (1984: 39) essentially expresses himself on three core theses in Durkheim's theory: First, society, more precisely the kinship bond, is placed above everything at the expense of the individual, who is completely neglected and who, for example, is not granted any personal religious experience outside of the clan association , although Durkheim is considered a prime example of a desk scholar, never conducted field research on site and had no personal experience of what actually goes on in the life of the individual ethnic groups. Second, numerous explanations by Durkheim, for example for the origin of the religious, lack evidence and remain mere assertions. Third, Durkheim's theory is made too dependent on the existence of totemism. Sigmund Freud already points out in his criticism that there are indeed many peoples in the world who do not have or have not possessed totemism, but nevertheless have religion and ideas of absolute power. On the other hand there are numerous other peoples where totemism plays a purely social role and has nothing to do with religion.
Reception, aftermath
Despite all the criticism, which in most cases is entirely justified, Durkheim's ideas continue to have an impact throughout Europe, including the USA and the most varied of methodological directions. Two directions can be distinguished: one in French-speaking area (in the broadest sense structuralistic ) overlying Mauss and Arnold van Gennep to Claude Levi-Strauss and Louis Dumont to Maurice Godelier leads; the second in the Anglophone area ( functionalist , structural functionalist , symbolist) via Bronisław Malinowski , Alfred Radcliffe-Brown and Talcott Parsons via Edward E. Evans-Pritchard to the Manchester School ( Victor Turner ).
expenditure
- Émile Durkheim: Les formes élémentaires de la vie religieuse. Le système totémique en Australie . PUF, Paris 2008, ISBN 978-2-1-3056751-6 .
- Émile Durkheim: The elementary forms of religious life ("Les formes élémentaires de la vie religieuse"). New edition Publishing House of World Religions, Frankfurt / M. 2007, ISBN 978-3-458-72002-7 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Quoted from Kippenberg 1997: 106f .; for a detailed analysis of Durkheim's relationship with Wundt and Robertson Smith, cf. ibd.
- ↑ See Evans-Pritchard 1981: 95