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Abstract
One hundred years after the publication of the great sociological treatise, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, this new volume shows how aptly Durkheim¹s theories still resonate with the study of contemporary and historical religious societies. The volume applies the Durkheimian model to multiple cases, probing its resilience, wondering where it might be tweaked, and asking which aspects have best stood the test of time. A dialogue between theory and ethnography, this book shows how Durkheimian sociology has become a mainstay of social thought and theory, pointing to multiple ways in which Durkheim¹s work on religion remains relevant to our thinking about culture.
“This volume is a timely contribution in rethinking the socially immanent dimensions of religion in contemporary times and I would recommend it to any student or scholar studying religion and its various relationships with both classical and contemporary anthropology.” · Social Anthropology
“The volume conveys the potential of Elementary Forms to inspire new areas of research in the field of cognitive studies and of collective processes and rituals more specifically. As the contributors suggest, there is much to explore in contemporary phenomena by wary of Durkheim’s original approach to the study of religion.” · Durkheimian Studies/Etudes Durkheimiennes
“…the volume as a whole shows that dialogue is how knowledge advances and that Durkheim is still worth talking about and talking to.” · Anthropology Review Database
Sondra L. Hausner is Oxford¹s first University Lecturer in the Study of Religion. An anthropologist by training, she teaches social and cultural theories of religion in the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford. Her ethnographic work focuses on Himalayan and South Asian religions and the social dynamics of ritual. She won the Joseph W. Elder Prize in the Indian Social Sciences from the American Institute of Indian Studies for her Durkheim-inspired monograph, Wandering with Sadhus: Ascetics in the Hindu Himalayas (Indiana University Press, 2007).
Table of Contents
| Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contents | vii | ||
| Illustrations | ix | ||
| Acknowledgements | xi | ||
| Introduction — Durkheim in Disciplinary Dialogue | 1 | ||
| Part I — Commencement | 17 | ||
| Chapter 1 — The Notion of Soul and Science Positive: A Retrieval of Durkheim's Method | 19 | ||
| Part II — Social Forms | 45 | ||
| Chapter 2 — Return to Durkheim: Civil Religion and the Moral Reconstruction of China | 47 | ||
| Chapter 3 — Elementary Forms of War: Performative Aspects of Youth Militia in Sierra Leone | 67 | ||
| Chapter 4 — Elementary Forms versus Psychology in Contemporary Cinema | 86 | ||
| Part III — Collective Minds | 107 | ||
| Chapter 5 — Durkheim's Sacred/Profane Opposition: What Should We Make of It? | 109 | ||
| Chapter 6 — Durkheim and the Primitive Mind: An Archaeological Retrospective | 124 | ||
| Chapter 7 — Durkheim, Anthropology and the Question of the Categories in Les Formes Élémentaires de la Vie Religieuse | 143 | ||
| Part IV — Effervescence | 165 | ||
| Chapter 8 — Is Individual to Collective as Freud Is to Durkheim? | 167 | ||
| Chapter 9 — Collective Representations, Discourse of Power and Personal Agency: Three Incommensurate Histories of a Collaborator's Rebellion in the Colonial Sudan | 180 | ||
| Chapter 10 — Actants Amassing (AA): Beyond Collective Effervescence and the Social | 206 | ||
| Part V — Fin | 231 | ||
| Chapter 11 — The Creation and Problematic Achievement of Les Formes Élémentaires | 233 | ||
| Contributors | 257 | ||
| Index | 260 |