Durkheim

• all societies divide the world into 2 basic categories: the sacred and the profane
• profane: mundane ordinary life/daily routine

  sacred: anything that transcends the humdrum of daily life and are set apart from society
• Durkheim believes that religion is the practice of marking off and maintaining distance between the sacred and the profane, typically done through rituals such as weekly visit to church.
• society determines what is sacred, anything can be sacred
• Durkheim used totemism of early aborigine Australians to explain his theory of religion, each clan had a totem which served to distinguish the clan from other clans, by worshipping the totem clan members were actually worshipping society and thus reminded that society is more important than the individual - society is too complicated a thing for people to conceptualise.