The Elementary Forms of Religious Life

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ISBN: 9780199540129

Products specifications

Attribute name	Attribute value
Author	Durkheim, Emile
Pub Date	17/04/2008
Binding	Paperback
Pages	416

Publisher: O.U.P.

Availability: Available for despatch from the bookshop in 48 hours

In The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, Durkheim investigated the enduring source of human social identity and fellowship by studying the simplest form of documented religion, totemism among the Aborigines of Australia. His book about the origin and nature of religion and society continues to enthrall sociologists, anthropologists, ethnographers, philosophers, and theologians.

Qty:

'If religion generated everything that is essential in society, this is because the idea of society is the soul of religion.'

In The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912), Emile Durkheim set himself the task of discovering the enduring source of human social identity. He investigated what he considered to be the simplest form of documented religion - totemism among the Aborigines of Australia. Aboriginal religion was an avenue 'to yield an understanding of the religious nature of man, by showing us an essential and permanent aspect of humanity'. The need and capacity of men and women to relate
socially lies at the heart of Durkheim's exploration, in which religion embodies the beliefs that shape our moral universe.

The Elementary Forms has been applauded and debated by sociologists, anthropologists, ethnographers, philosophers, and theologians, and continues to speak to new generations about the origin and nature of religion and society. This new, lightly abridged edition provides an excellent introduction to Durkheim's ideas.
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