The Elementary Forms of the Religious LifeDurkheim, Émile
Religion
The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life
Durkheim, Émile
Cults; Religion; Religion -- Philosophy; Rites and ceremonies; Totemism
So the field of religious things extends well beyond the limits within
which it seemed to be confined at first. It embraces not only the
totemic animals and the human members of the clan; but since no known
thing exists that is not classified in a clan and under a totem, there
is likewise nothing which does not receive to some degree something of
a religious character. When, in the religions which later come into
being, the gods properly so-called appear, each of them will be set over
a special category of natural phenomena, this one over the sea, that one
over the air, another over the harvest or over fruits, etc., and each of
these provinces of nature will be believed to draw what life there is in
it from the god upon whom it depends. This division of nature among the
different divinities constitutes the conception which these religions
give us of the universe. Now so long as humanity has not passed the
phase of totemism, the different totems of the tribe fulfil exactly the
same functions that will later fall upon the divine personalities. In
the Mount Gambier tribe, which we have taken as our principal example,
there are ten clans; consequently the entire world is divided into ten
classes, or rather into ten families, each of which has a special totem
as its basis. It is from this basis that the things classed in the clan
get all their reality, for they are thought of as variant forms of the
totemic being; to return to our example, the rain, thunder, lightning,
clouds, hail and winter are regarded as different sorts of crows. When
brought together, these ten families of things make up a complete and
systematic representation of the world; and this representation is
religious, for religious notions furnish its basis. Far from being
limited to one or two categories of beings, the domain of totemic
religion extends to the final limits of the known universe. Just like
the Greek religion, it puts the divine everywhere; the celebrated
formula [Greek: panta plêrê theôn] (everything is full of the gods),
might equally well serve it as motto.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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