Durkheim

• The Arunta tribe study

  • Durkheim studied the Arunta tribe ( an Australian aboriginal tribe) and their religious belief
  • he deliberately focused on this tribe as he believed that they practiced a very primitive religion in which he would be able to derive it's core elements and functions
• Profane vs Sacred

  • he made the case that society had an inclination to classifying objects as either sacred or profane, sacred objects being those that held a great religious significance, as opposed to profane objects that were classed as mundane everyday experiences
  • he discovered that Totems were viewed as sacred in the Arunta tribe
• 4 Key functions of religion

  • Discipline; religion imposes the trait of self-discipline, teaching it's followers to behave sociably and selflessly
  • Cohesion; religion brings the community together through worship, further reinforcing friendships and bonds
  • Vitalising; religion upholds tradition and facilitates the passing down of values, ensuring they stay vital and at the heart of society
  • Euphoric; religion is intended to remind followers in times of stress that they are part of something bigger
• he viewed religion as a vehicle used to further drive the distinction between the sacred and the profane, and as a means of foregrounding a collective consciousness
• a criticism is that due to the extremely primitive nature of the totemic religion practiced by the Arunta tribe and the fact that integration was much tighter, it was virtually impossible to apply his findings to more complex societies
• The sacred transcends the humdrum of everyday life, typically represented by representations which are set apart from society, eg. designated places of worship, like temples, mosques or churches
• in essence, religion is a mechanism used to maintain a distance between the sacred and the profane, this distinction is attained through rituals, prayer etc.
• he advanced the idea that through the tribe members' worship of the sacred totems, they were essentially worshiping society, this ties into the core sentiment of functionalism, which is that individuals are dependent on society
• because the worship of religion is also the worship of society, it characterises society with a sacred quality, giving it the power to encourage social solidarity
• functions of religion

  • helps people recognise their duties to the social group
  • reinforce social bonds
  • binds people together by allowing them to express their faith in their common values
• to the Arunta tribe, a totem was an animal, plant or object that was revered due to the connection it has to their lineage, an outward, tangible expression of a totemic God or principle
• another criticism is that his findings are outdated, as they envisage a society in which a single, unifying religion presides over any other, this is not the case in modern, Western societies, in which there is no consensus pertaining to religion, a major cause of conflict in places like the Middle East