The Elementary Forms of Religious Life

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Overview

The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, published by the French sociologist Emile Durkheim in 1912, argues that religion is fundamentally a social phenomenon. Durkheim holds that the sacred stands for the community itself, and that rituals strengthen the bonds that hold a group together. He builds the argument from the study of totemism among Aboriginal Australian clans. The book matters because it founded much of the sociology of religion and still shapes how scholars think about ritual, symbol and belonging.

Context

Durkheim wrote in France at a time when sociology was becoming an academic discipline, and when scholars debated the origin of religion through theories such as animism and naturism. He wanted to show that religion could be studied scientifically, without assuming either that it is true or that it is an illusion. The English translation by Joseph Ward Swain appeared in 1915.