ЭМИЛЬ ДЮРКГЕЙМ Элементарные формы религиозной жизни
ПЕРЕВЕДЕНО С ФРАНЦУЗСКОГО ДЖОЗЕФОМ УОРДОМ СУЭЙНОМ, МАГИСТРОМ ГУМАНИТАРНЫХ НАУК
ЛОНДОН GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD РАСКИН-ХАУС, МЬЮЗЕУМ-СТРИТ
ВПЕРВЫЕ ОПУБЛИКОВАНО В 1915 ГОДУ ВТОРОЕ ИЗДАНИЕ 1926 ГОДА ТРЕТЬЕ ИЗДАНИЕ 1954 ГОДА ЧЕТВЕРТОЕ ИЗДАНИЕ 1957 ГОДА ПЯТОЕ ИЗДАНИЕ 1964 ГОДА
Эта книга защищена авторским правом в соответствии с Бернской конвенцией. За исключением случаев добросовестного использования в целях частного изучения, исследования, критики или рецензирования, как это разрешено Законом об авторском праве 1956 года, никакая часть не может быть воспроизведена каким-либо способом без письменного разрешения. Запросы следует направлять издателю.
© George Allen & Unwin Ltd. 1915
ОТПЕЧАТАНО В ВЕЛИКОБРИТАНИИ В HOLLEN STREET PRESS LTD ЛОНДОН W.1
ЭЛЕМЕНТАРНЫЕ ФОРМЫ РЕЛИГИОЗНОЙ ЖИЗНИ
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION Subject of our Study: Religious Sociology and the Theory of KnowledgePAGE I.—Principal subject of the book: analysis of the simplest religion known to determine the elementary forms of the religious life—Why they are more easily found and explained in the primitive religions1 II.—Secondary subject of research: the genesis of the fundamental notions of thought or the categories—Reasons for believing that their origin is religious and consequently social—How a way of restating the theory of knowledge is thus seen9
BOOK I
PRELIMINARY QUESTIONS CHAPTER I
Definition of Religious Phenomena and of Religion Usefulness of a preliminary definition of religion; method to be followed in seeking this definition—Why the usual definitions should be examined first23 I.—Religion defined by the supernatural and mysterious—Criticism: the notion of mystery is not primitive24 II.—Religion defined in connection with the idea of God or a spiritual being.—Religions without gods—Rites in deistic religions which imply no idea of divinity29 III.—Search for a positive definition—Distinction between beliefs and rites—Definition of beliefs—First characteristic: division of things between sacred and profane—Distinctive characteristics of this definition—Definition of rites in relation to beliefs—Definition of religion36 IV.—Necessity of another characteristic to distinguish magic from religion—The idea of the Church—Do individualistic religions exclude the idea of a Church?42 CHAPTER II
Leading Conceptions of the Elementary Religion
I.—Animism Distinction of animism and naturism48 I—The three theses of animism: Genesis of the idea of the soul; Formation of the idea of spirits; Transformation of the cult of spirits into the cult of nature49 II.—Criticism of the first thesis—Distinction of the idea of the soul from that of a double—Dreams do not account for the idea of the soul55 III.—Criticism of the second thesis—Death does not explain the transformation of a soul into a spirit—The cult of the souls of the dead is not primitive60 IV.—Criticism of the third thesis—The anthropomorphic instinct—Spencer's criticism of it; reservations on this point—Examination of the facts by which this instinct is said to be proved—Difference between a soul and the spirits of nature—Religious anthropomorphism is not primitive65 V.—Conclusion: animism reduces religion to nothing more than a system of hallucinations68 CHAPTER III
Leading Conceptions of the Elementary Religion—(continued)
II.—Naturism History of the theory71 I.—Exposition of Max Müller's naturism73 II.—If the object of religion is to express natural forces, it is hard to see how it has maintained itself, for it expresses them in an erroneous manner—Pretended distinction between religion and mythology78 III.—Naturism does not explain the division of things into sacred and profane84 CHAPTER IV
Totemism as an Elementary Religion I.—Brief history of the question of totemism88 II.—Reasons of method for which our study will be given specially to the totemism of Australia—The place which will be given to facts from America93
BOOK II
THE ELEMENTARY BELIEFS CHAPTER I
Totemic Beliefs
The Totem as Name and as Emblem I.—Definition of the clan—The totem as name of the clan—Nature of the things which serve as totems—Ways in which the totem is acquired—The totems of phratries; of matrimonial classes102 II.—The totem as emblem—Totemic designs engraved or carved upon objects; tatooings or designs upon the body113 III.—Sacred character of the totemic emblem—The churinga—The nurtunja—The waninga—Conventional character of totemic emblems119 CHAPTER II
Totemic Beliefs—(continued)
The Totemic Animal and Man I.—Sacred character of the totemic animals—Prohibition to eat them, kill them or pick the totemic plants—Different moderations given these prohibitions—Prohibition of contact—The sacred character of the animal is less marked than that of the emblem128 II.—The man—His relationship with the totemic animal or plant—Different myths explaining this relationship—The sacred character of the man is more apparent in certain parts of the organism: the blood, hair, etc.—How this character varies with sex and age—Totemism is not plant or animal worship134 CHAPTER III
Totemic Beliefs—(continued)
The Cosmological System of Totemism and the Idea of Class I.—The classification of things into clans, phratries and classes141 II.—Genesis of the notion of class: the first classifications of things take their forms from society—Differences between the sentiment of the differences of things and the idea of class—Why this is of social origin144 III.—Religious significance of these classifications: all of the things classified into a clan partake of the nature of the totem and its sacred character—The cosmological system of totemism—Totemism as the tribal religion148 CHAPTER IV
Totemic Beliefs—(end)
The Individual Totem and the Sexual Totem I.—Individual totem as a forename; its sacred character—Individual totem as personal emblem—Bonds between the man and his individual totem—Relations with the collective totem157 II.—The totems of sexual groups—Resemblances and differences with the collective and individual totems—Their tribal nature165 CHAPTER V
Origins of these Beliefs
Critical Examination of Preceding Theories I.—Theories which derive totemism from a previous religion: from the ancestor cult (Wilken and Tylor); from the nature cult (Jevons)—Criticism of these theories168 II.—Theories which derive collective totemism from individual totemism—Origins attributed by these theories to the individual totem (Frazer, Boas, Hill Tout)—Improbability of these hypotheses—Reasons showing the priority of the collective totem172 III.—Recent theory of Frazer: conceptional and local totemism—The begging of the question upon which it rests—The religious character of the totem is denied—Local totemism is not primitive180 IV.—Theory of Lang: that the totem is only a name—Difficulties in explaining the religious character of totemic practices from this point of view184 V.—All these theories explain totemism only by postulating other religious notions anterior to it186 CHAPTER VI
Origins of these Beliefs—(continued)
The Notion of the Totemic Principle, or Mana, and the Idea of Force I.—The notion of the totemic force or principle—Its ubiquity—Its character at once physical and moral188 II.—Analogous conceptions in other inferior societies—The gods in Samoa, the wakan of the Sioux, the orenda of the Iroquois, the mana of Melanesia—Connection of these notions with totemism—The Arunkulta of the Arunta191 III.—Logical priority of impersonal force over the different mythical personalities—Recent theories which tend to admit this priority198 IV.—The notion of religious force is the prototype of that of force in general203 CHAPTER VII
Origins of these Beliefs—(end)
Origin of the Idea of the Totemic Principle or Mana I.—The totemic principle is the clan, but thought of under a more empirical form205 II.—General reasons for which society is apt to awaken the sensation of the sacred and the divine—Society as an imperative moral force; the notion of moral authority—Society as a force which raises the individual outside of himself—Facts which prove that society creates the sacred206 III.—Reasons peculiar to Australian societies—The two phases through which the life of these societies alternatively passes: dispersion, concentration—Great collective effervescence during the periods of concentration—Examples—How the religious idea is born out of this effervescence214 Why collective force has been thought of under totemic forms: it is the totem that is the emblem of the clan—Explanation of the principal totemic beliefs219 IV.—Religion is not the product of fear—It expresses something real—Its essential idealism—This idealism is a general characteristic of collective mentality—Explanation of the external character of religious forces in relation to their subjects—The principle that the part is equal to the whole223 V.—Origin of the notion of emblem: emblems a necessary condition of collective representations—Why the clan has taken its emblems from the animal and vegetable kingdoms230 VI.—The proneness of the primitive to confound the kingdoms and classes which we distinguish—Origins of these confusions—How they have blazed the way for scientific explanations—They do not exclude the tendency towards distinction and opposition234 CHAPTER VIII
The Idea of the Soul I.—Analysis of the idea of the soul in the Australian societies240 II.—Genesis of this idea—The doctrine of reincarnation according to Spencer and Gillen: it implies that the soul is a part of the totemic principle—Examination of the facts collected by Strehlow; they confirm the totemic nature of the soul246 III.—Generality of the doctrine of reincarnation—Diverse facts in support of the proposed genesis256 IV.—Antithesis of the soul and the body: what there is objective in this—Relations of the individual soul with the collective soul—The idea of the soul is not chronologically after that of mana262 V.—Hypothesis to explain the belief in its survival267 VI.—The idea of a soul and the idea of a person; impersonal elements in the personality269 CHAPTER IX
The Idea of Spirits and Gods I.—Difference between a soul and a spirit—The souls of the mythical ancestors are spirits, having determined functions—Relations between the ancestral spirit, the individual soul and the individual totem—Explanation of this latter—Its sociological significance273 II.—Spirits and magic281 III.—The civilizing heroes283 IV.—The great gods—Their origin—Their relations with the totemic system—Their tribal and international character285 V.—Unity of the totemic system295
BOOK III
THE PRINCIPAL RITUAL ATTITUDES CHAPTER I
The Negative Cult and its Functions
The Ascetic Rites I.—The system of interdictions—Magic and religious interdictions—Interdictions between sacred things of different sorts—Interdictions between sacred and profane—These latter are the basis of the negative cult—Leading types of these interdictions; their reduction to two essential types299 II.—The observance of interdictions modifies the religious state of individuals—Cases where this efficacy is especially apparent: ascetic practices—The religious efficacy of sorrow—Social function of asceticism309 III.—Explanation of the system of interdictions: antagonism of the sacred and the profane, contagiousness of the sacred317 IV.—Causes of this contagiousness—It cannot be explained by the laws of the association of ideas—It is because religious forces are outside of their subjects—Logical interest in this property of religious forces321 CHAPTER II
The Positive Cult
I.—The Elements of Sacrifice The Intichiuma ceremony in the tribes of Central Australia—Different forms which it presents326 I.—The Arunta Form—The two phases—Analysis of the first: visit to sacred places, scattering of sacred dust, shedding of blood, etc., to assure the reproduction of the totemic species327 II.—Second phase: ritual consumption of the totemic plant or animal333 III.—Interpretation of the complete ceremony—The second rite consists in a communion meal—Reason for this communion336 IV.—The rites of the first phase consists in oblations—Analogies with sacrificial oblations—The Intichiuma thus contains the two elements of sacrifice—Interest of these facts for the theory of sacrifice340 V.—On the pretended absurdity of sacrificial oblations—How they are explained: dependence of sacred beings upon their worshippers—Explanation of the circle in which sacrifice seems to move—Origin of the periodicity of positive rites344 CHAPTER III
The Positive Cult—(continued)
II.—Imitative Rites and the Principle of Causality I.—Nature of the imitative rites—Examples of ceremonies where they are employed to assure the fertility of the species351 II.—They rest upon the principle: like produces like—Examination of the explanation of this given by the anthropological school—Reasons why they imitate the animal or plant—Reasons for attributing a physical efficacy to these gestures—Faith—In what sense it is founded upon experience—The principles of magic are born in religion355 III.—The preceding principle considered as one of the first statements of the principle of causality—Social conditions upon which this latter depends—The idea of impersonal force or power is of social origin—The necessity for the conception of causality explained by the authority inherent in social imperatives362 CHAPTER IV
The Positive Cult—(continued)
III.—Representative or Commemorative Rites I.—Representative rites with physical efficacy—Their relations with the ceremonies already described—Their action is wholly moral371 II.—Representative rites without physical efficacy—They confirm the preceding results—The element of recreation in religion: its importance; its reason for existence—The idea of a feast376 III.—Ambiguity of function in the various ceremonies studied; they substitute themselves for each other—How this ambiguity confirms the theory proposed383 CHAPTER V
Piacular Rites and the Ambiguity of the Notion of Sacredness Definition of the piacular rite389 I.—Positive rites of mourning—Description of these rites390 II.—How they are explained—They are not a manifestation of private sentiments—The malice attributed to the souls of the dead cannot account for them either—They correspond to the state of mind in which the group happens to be—Analysis of this state—How it ends by mourning—Corresponding changes in the way in which the souls of the dead are conceived396 III.—Other piacular rites; after a public mourning, a poor harvest, a drought, the southern lights—Rarity of these rites in Australia—How they are explained403 IV.—The two forms of the sacred: the pure and the impure—Their antagonism—Their relationship—Ambiguity of the idea of the sacred—All rites present the same character409
CONCLUSION To what extent the results obtained may be generalized415 I.—Religion rests upon an experience that is well founded but not privileged—Necessity of a science to reach the reality at the bottom of this experience—What is this reality?—The human groups—Human meaning of religion—Concerning the objection which opposes the ideal society to the real society416 How religious individualism and cosmopolitanism are explained in this theory424 II.—The eternal element in religion—Concerning the conflict between science and religion; it has to do solely with the speculative side of religion—What this side seems destined to become427 III.—How has society been able to be the source of logical, that is to say conceptual, thought? Definition of the concept: not to be confounded with the general idea; characterized by its impersonality and communicability—It has a collective origin—The analysis of its contents bears witness in the same sense Collective representations as types of ideas which individuals accept—In regard to the objection that they are impersonal only on condition of being true—Conceptual thought is coeval with humanity431 IV.—How the categories express social things—The chief category is the concept of totality which could be suggested only by society—Why the relations expressed by the categories could become conscious only in society—Society is not an a-logical being—How the categories tend to detach themselves from geographically determined groups439 The unity of science on the one hand, and of morals and religion on the other—How the society accounts for this unity—Explanation of the rôle attributed to society: its creative power—Reactions of sociology upon the science of man445
ВВЕДЕНИЕ ПРЕДМЕТ НАШЕГО ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯ: РЕЛИГИОЗНАЯ СОЦИОЛОГИЯ И ТЕОРИЯ ПОЗНАНИЯ
В этой книге мы предлагаем изучить наиболее примитивную и простую религию, которая известна на сегодняшний день, провести ее анализ и попытаться объяснить ее. Религиозную систему можно назвать наиболее примитивной из тех, что мы можем наблюдать, если она отвечает двум следующим условиям: во-первых, если она обнаруживается в обществе, организация которого не превзойдена по своей простоте ни одним другим; [1] и, во-вторых, если ее можно объяснить, не прибегая к использованию каких-либо элементов, заимствованных из предшествующей религии.
Мы поставим перед собой задачу описать организацию этой системы со всей точностью и добросовестностью, на которую способен этнограф или историк. Но наша задача не ограничится этим: социология ставит иные проблемы, нежели история или этнография. Она не стремится познать прошлые формы цивилизации с единственной целью их познания и реконструкции. Напротив, как и любая позитивная наука, она имеет своим объектом объяснение некоторой актуальной реальности, которая близка нам и которая, следовательно, способна влиять на наши идеи и наши действия: эта реальность — человек, и, точнее, современный человек, ибо нет ничего, что нам было бы интереснее знать. Таким образом, мы собираемся изучать весьма архаичную религию не просто ради удовольствия рассказывать о ее особенностях и уникальных чертах. Если мы взяли ее в качестве предмета нашего исследования, то лишь потому, что она показалась нам более приспособленной, чем любая другая, для понимания религиозной природы человека, то есть для того, чтобы показать нам существенный и постоянный аспект человечества.