Response to Durkheim Readings

In the selected reading that we did for class regarding the elementary form of religion, Durkheim gives us his theory of the collective nature of religious thought and practice. One element of religion practice that he focuses on to use to support his theory is the use of totemism. Durkheim says that because totems are considered sacred, and are representations of dissimilar things, their sacredness can only be explained by the communal consciousness of the believers. I agree up to this point with his ideas, but he then goes on to say that . these religious totems are anonymous forces that outlive their adherents I disagree.
Even when we review his descriptions the important basic elements of religious thought however primitive, still involves the ability to conceptualize the experience of the totem as sacred, which Durkheim acknowledges when he describes the dichotomy that exists within all religious beliefs of the sacred and the profane. There exists the classification between the ideal and what is really real. This does not necessarily support his argument that the supernatural does not exist within primitive religions because these groups do not have the concept of what is the natural order and the variation of that order,. which would be the supernatural. I think that you could easily argue that these religions did have the ability to conceptualize this if they were able to separate the sacred and the profane.
Durkheim is ignoring the premise that these objects only hold this religious value through human thought. Because human thought is subjective, the religious signifigence of these totems exist only in the mind of the believers and not independently of it. The force that he describes as constant through generations cannot be possible because we cannot assume that the experience of these forces remains the same. It depends on how the experience is conceptualized.

Durkheim, Emile The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (New York: Free Press, 1995)
Durkheim, Emile, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, (New York Free Press, 1995)

Worshiping Our Society

We can easily say that religion has a great influence on society, but can we say that society has a great influence on religion? In the essay “The Elementary Forms of Religious Life”, Emile Durkheim explores the relationship between religion and society. Durkheim introduces us to the totemic principle, in which he explains how things become sacred with in a community and have a symbolic meaning based on a communal belief. For example, Durkheim uses the example of the Crow phratry being crows. Durkheim states,

[The native] does not exactly mean that they are crows, in the everyday empirical sense of the world, but that the same principle is found in all of them. That principle constitutes what they all most fundamentally are, is shared between people and animals of the same name, and is conceptualized as having the outward form of a crow.

Within the Crow phratry the crow has become a sign of the group. As Durkheim explains, this is one of the common threads among religious groups. If we are to look at other religious assemblies we can see that they also have physical objects that are representative of their group. For example, the fish is commonly recognized as a symbol of Christianity and the Torah for the Jewish community. Both the fish and the Torah are religious totems because they reflect the individual societies they symbolize. Based on this observation Durkheim makes the assertion that religion is the worship of a society.

In response, I have to agree with Durkheim’s assertion. If religions use objects from their society as a representation of the religion than they must be honoring the values and ideas they collectively live by.

Durkheim, Emile. "The Elementary Forms of Religious Life." trans. Karen E. Fields (New York: Free Press, 1995).