--- product_id: 12083698 title: "The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life" brand: "emile durkheimjoseph ward swain m.a." price: "£10.72" currency: GBP in_stock: false reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/12083698-the-elementary-forms-of-the-religious-life store_origin: GB region: United Kingdom --- # The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life **Brand:** emile durkheimjoseph ward swain m.a. **Price:** £10.72 **Availability:** ❌ Out of Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life by emile durkheimjoseph ward swain m.a. - **How much does it cost?** £10.72 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Currently out of stock - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.co.uk](https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/12083698-the-elementary-forms-of-the-religious-life) ## Best For - emile durkheimjoseph ward swain m.a. enthusiasts ## Why This Product - Trusted emile durkheimjoseph ward swain m.a. brand quality - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description Full description not available ## Images ![The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51YAhLR8HLL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ social reality as the grounding of religion *by X***U on Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2013* The crux of Durkheim’s theorization of religion lies in his metaphysical breakthrough in identifying social reality as the ground of all religions, shattering the presumed dichotomies of the material vs. the imaginary and the body vs. the mind. Releasing studies of religion from the confine of pure ideas and the imaginations, Durkheim (echoing Marxist theory of practice and nodding to Kant's synthesis of Rationalism and Empiricism: "Concepts without percepts are empty; percepts without concepts are blind") brought us onto a new path of understanding religion by investigating how ideas connect to practices, how rites and rituals give rise to symbols, and how symbols structure human behaviors. Admittedly, Durkheim didn’t have the final words on the questions he raised one century ago. And yet, no scholars of religion after Durkheim can evade these questions. This is why Durkheim still matters today.To understand the formation and disintegration of social reality and the idealized social reality, Durkheim drew our attention to rites and rituals through his readings of totemism, concluding that social forces behind rites and rituals (in other words purposefully organized collective actions) engender the sacred and its symbolism in a society. Again, Durkheim, though hopeless wrong about many of the details, correctly identified crucial questions in understanding religion: the performative aspect of ritual (in the sense that rituals generate meaning instead of merely communicating information), the affective power of religious techniques, and the emotional labor inherent in religious practices. Today we continue to ask these questions with contemporary twists such as the role of media in forging religiosity, the cultural capital of religious symbols, and so on.Indeed, Durkheim’s theorization of religion is like Dürer's Rhinoceros: many of the details are dead wrong (seen from the vantage point of the present); and yet, no one can deny the brilliance shone through—thanks to Durkheim’s armchair anthropology (or thought experiments), social reality has become the “natural” category of analysis and one of the most powerful tools in investigating questions related to religions and religiosities. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Extraordinary contribution to the understanding of the religious phenomena *by L***A on Reviewed in the United States on November 16, 2015* This is a most read book to anyone interested in understanding the social roots of religion. Durkheim's definition of religion is not philosophical, but constructed through the massive ethnological and anthropological evidence of the most elemental forms of religious life found among Australia's indigenous tribes. I had struggle with the definition and the origin of religion for many years, until I read this wonderful book. Regardless of Durkheims' claims about the role of religion in society, which may be functional inside a group but dis-functional with respect to a larger globalized community, his theory for understanding the religious fact from a scientific perspective has more explanatory power than any other I have read. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A classic *by M***T on Reviewed in the United States on June 26, 2013* Emile Durkheim's Elementary Forms of Religious Life is a seminal work by a sociologist of genius, who was one of the first men to attempt a naturalistic account of religion, the essence of which he locates in tribal ritual with respect to objects deemed sacred. The totemic religion of Australian aborigines, which Durkheim's book describes in detail, provides his test case. Since there is a better explanation of the function of religion--viz., it promotes social cohesion for common ends--I cannot endorse Durkheim's conviction that even the fantastic myths of primitive religion must be true; but he was surely correct in presuming that so universal a form of social life must have some adaptive benefit. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/12083698-the-elementary-forms-of-the-religious-life](https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/12083698-the-elementary-forms-of-the-religious-life) --- *Product available on Desertcart United Kingdom* *Store origin: GB* *Last updated: 2026-05-20*