Ryan Schram

ryan.schram@sydney.edu.au

Mills 169 (A69)

March 9, 2016

Available at http://anthro.rschram.org/2667/2

Unit outline and assignment instructions.

Durkheim, Emile. 2008 [1912]. “The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life.” In A Reader in the Anthropology of Religion, edited by Michael Lambek, 34–47. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishing. (Recommended.)

Anonymous. 2013. “Emile Durkheim and Socialization.” YouTube, September 12. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXUX4CvxP68.

You should bring an example of a religious practice to tutorial today. We will be meeting in Fisher Library to learn about how to research them. Maybe some of you already have some ideas… Walk around and introduce yourself to people. Share what you have brought.

Now is a good time to mention my guide to research, The Quest: Discovering new ideas through research. Check it out. This week are a starting to seek a topic of research.

• Do you have something in common with other students?
• Was there something surprising?
• Do you notice any themes or patterns?
• Are we closer to defining religion now?

The University wants undergraduate students (you) to do new and different kinds of work, especially fewer exams, and more projects, both on your own and in groups. What difference do you think this will make? What will it be like for you?

You should now have all read the unit outline, the assignment instructions, and hopefully, The Quest.

What is an “ethnography”? Why would it be good to find one to read?

Do you have any questions for me?

• Describing and theorizing religion is first a branch of theology. This results in a 'normative' theory of religion.
• European Enlightenment philosophy attempts to prove whether or not there is a basis in 'reason' to believe in God, or to derive a 'natural religion,' i.e. the beliefs you could have based purely on reason.
• The development of science meant that the is could be separated from the ought. Studying religion became a topic people wanted to talk about objectively.
• E. B. Tylor puts forward one of the first 'cultural' explanations of religious belief, and anthropology is born!

Emile Durkheim invented the scientific study of society.

• Society is a whole which is greater than the sum of its parts. A society is a collective consciousness.
• The ideas (or 'constructs') of a collective mind are different than the ideas of an individual mind. They seem so much more powerful. It is as if they are facts. Hence, we must “[c]onsider social facts as things” (Durkheim 1964 [1895]: 14).
• The essence of society is its solidarity. Society perdures in time because the members often feel and know in their bones that they are part of the whole. Durkheim says that this is expressed in terms of “the sacred.” He argues that all societies define some things as sacred and some things as profane.

• Religion is essential to any societies. All societies must have a distinction between the 'sacred' and the 'profane'. This is the first social fact.
• Religion as we know it, and many other kinds of social institution, perform this “function” to maintain the distinction between sacred and profane for their societies. Religion is, in essence, an orientation to the sacred as society defines it. Religion is thus also socially functional. It connects people to the social whole. It fosters mechanical solidarity.
• Durkheim also spoke of “organic solidarity”–or connections to one's society based on specialized roles with the division of labor. All societies have both organic and mechanical solidarity. Religion functions to foster mechanical solidarity and economy functions to foster organic solidarity. We want to focus on mechanical solidarity.

Durkheim is best known for his statement that 'Religion is just society worshipping itself'. What does that mean?

Sacred things are symbols of society as a whole, something greater than the sum of its parts.

Sacred rituals and sacred actions, especially group actions, create a heightened feeling. Durkheim calls this effervescence. This effervescence in ritual functions to create mechanical solidarity.

So it is the patterns of action, especially rituals, which are important to Durkheim. He doesn't dwell on things like faith and emotions. He is interested in the thoughts of the collective mind–social facts.

Durkheim, Emile. 1964 [1895]. The Rules of the Sociological Method. Edited by George E. G. Catlin. Translated by Sarah A. Solovay and John H. Mueller. New York: The Free Press.