Durkheim in Dialogue: A Centenary Celebration of The Elementary Forms of Religious Life

by Sondra L. Hausner (Editor)

Overview

One hundred years after the publication of the great sociological treatise, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, this new volume shows how aptly Durkheim¹s theories still resonate with the study of contemporary and historical religious societies. The volume applies the Durkheimian model to multiple cases, probing its resilience, wondering where it might be tweaked, and asking which aspects have best stood the test of time. A dialogue between theory and ethnography, this book shows how Durkheimian sociology has become a mainstay of social thought and theory, pointing to multiple ways in which Durkheim¹s work on religion remains relevant to our thinking about culture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781785333453
Publisher:	Berghahn Books
Publication date:	10/01/2016
Series:	Methodology & History in Anthropology , #27
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Sondra L. Hausner is Oxford¹s first UniversityLecturer in the Study of Religion. An anthropologist by training, she teaches social and cultural theories of religion in the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford. Her ethnographic work focuses on Himalayan and South Asian religions and the social dynamics of ritual. She won the Joseph W. Elder Prize in the Indian Social Sciences from the American Institute of Indian Studies for her Durkheim-inspired monograph, Wandering with Sadhus: Ascetics in the Hindu Himalayas (Indiana UniversityPress, 2007).

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Acknowledgements xi

Introduction. Durkheim in Disciplinary Dialogue Sondra L .Hausner 1

Part I Commencement

Chapter 1 The Notion of Soul and Science Positive: A Retrieval of Durkheim's Method Karen E. Fields 19

Part II Social Forms

Chapter 2 Return to Durkheim: Civil Religion and the Moral Reconstruction of China Ji Zhe 47

Chapter 3 Elementary Forms of War: Performative Aspects of Youth Militia in Sierra Leone Paul Richards 67

Chapter 4 Elementary Forms versus Psychology in Contemporary Cinema Louise Child 86

Part III Collective Minds

Chapter 5 Durkheim's Sacred/Profane Opposition: What Should We Make of It? N.J. Allen 109

Chapter 6 Durkheim and the Primitive Mind: An Archaeological Retrospective Clive Gamble 124

Chapter 7 Durkheim, Anthropology and the Question of the Categories in Les Formes Élémentaires de la vie Religieuse Susan Stedman Jones 143

Part IV Effervescence

Chapter 8 Is Individual to Collective as Freud Is to Durkheim? Sondra L. Hausner 167

Chapter 9 Collective Representations, Discourses of Power and Personal Agency: Three Incommensurate Histories of a Collaborator's Rebellion in the Colonial Sudan Gerd Baumann 180

Chapter 10 Actants Amassing (AA): Beyond Collective Effervescence and the Social Adam Yuet Chau 206

Part V Fin

Chapter 11 The Creation and Problematic Achievement of Les Formes Élémentaires W. Watts Miller 253

Notes on Contributors 257

Index 260

Editorial Reviews

“This volume is a timely contribution in rethinking the socially immanent dimensions of religion in contemporary times and I would recommend it to any student or scholar studying religion and its various relationships with both classical and contemporary anthropology.” · Social Anthropology

“The volume conveys the potential of Elementary Forms to inspire new areas of research in the field of cognitive studies and of collective processes and rituals more specifically. As the contributors suggest, there is much to explore in contemporary phenomena by wary of Durkheim’s original approach to the study of religion.” · Durkheimian Studies/Etudes Durkheimiennes

“…the volume as a whole shows that dialogue is how knowledge advances and that Durkheim is still worth talking about and talking to.” · Anthropology Review Database

From the Publisher