Been a while since my last review for #bookstr, but I’m back with a good one.
The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life is a 1912 book by French sociologist, Emile Durkheim.
It’s considered a foundational text in sociology as essentially the first book to parse religion as a social phenomenon which allows for extended group harmony by means of shared practices, morals, and behaviours.
Durkheim makes his case by studying Australian Aboriginal totemic societies in a manner which fans of #Austrian economics would appreciate, as he strips religion back to its most basic form, and builds his suppositions from there.
I could write entire reviews through different lenses - as a someone who grew up in Christian White #Australia, as a well-travelled Westerner, as a #Bitcoiner and member of the maxi cult, as someone now living in Buddhist/Confuscian/Socialist #Vietnam.
Part of what you’ll gather from this text is how all religions have similar ideas and concepts. They are pervasive, intractable, and inescapable; because they are the external framework which allows people to NOT constantly be at war with one another. They’d all be very different but Durkheim manages to distill the essence of religion as a social glue in a way that had never really been articulated before him, and one we basically take for granted today.
Just read the Conclusion if you want his ideas, the actual exploration of Aboriginal totemism is dull. Having been exposed to their practices, you don’t actually need to know about how they cover sticks in feathers and then dance around it for hours; they actually do this shit and the people who think we ought protect their ancient wisdom are truly morons. They were and are so primitive we can’t learn more than what this book tells us; we need to explore higher religions in detail beyond this.
Top 5 book for me this year. I gained a lot from this. A lot of hard to articulate things distilled to their essence for you to put different lenses on.
But do not read this if you think the Australian Aborigines are some sacred people whose practices need to be protected; that myth is going to be quickly dispelled as you dig into this and understand just how primitive they are.
