Les Formes élémentaires de la vie religieuse
aka Les Formes élémentaires de la vie religieuse : le système totémique en Australie. [The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life: The Totemic System in Australia.]
The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life
modern europe
The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, published by the French sociologist Émile Durkheim in 1912, is a book that analyzes religion as a social phenomenon. Durkheim attributes the development of religion to the emotional security attained through communal living. His study of totemic societies in Australia led to a conclusion that the animal or plant that each clan worshipped as a sacred power was in fact that society itself. Halfway through the text, Durkheim asks, "So if [the totem animal] is at once the symbol of the god and of the society, is that not because the god and the society are only one?"Wikipedia →
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