The elementary forms of religious life / Emile Durkheim ; translated and with an introduction by Karen E. Fields.

Ethnographic map of Australia on endpapers.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction -- Note on the Text -- Select Bibliography -- A Chronology of Emile Durkheim -- Map -- The Elementary Forms of Religious Life -- Introduction -- 1. A Definition of the Religious Phenomenon and of Religion -- 2. The Leading Conceptions of Elementary Religion: I. Animism -- 3. The Leading Conceptions of Elementary Religion: II. Naturism -- 4. Totemism as Elementary Religion: Historical Review of the Question, Method of Treating It -- 1. Central Totemic Beliefs: I. The Totem as Name and Emblem -- 2. Central Totemic Beliefs: II. The Totemic Animal and Man -- 3. Central Totemic Beliefs: III. The Cosmological System of Totemism and the Notion of Genus -- 4. Central Totemic Beliefs: IV. The Individual Totem and the Sexual Totem -- 5. The Origins of These Beliefs: I. A Critical Examination of the Theories -- 6. The Origins of These Beliefs: II. The Notion of the Totemic Principle or Mana, and the Idea of Force -- 7. The Origins of These Beliefs: III. The Genesis of the Notion of the Totemic Principle or Mana -- 8. The Notion of Soul -- 9. The Notion of Spirits and Gods -- 1. The Negative Cult and its Functions: Ascetic Rites -- 2. The Positive Cult: I. The Element of Sacrifice -- 3. The Positive Cult: II. Mimetic Rites and the Principle of Causality -- 4. The Positive Cult: III. Representative of Commemorative Rites -- 5. Piacular Rites and the Ambiguity of the Notion of the Sacred -- Conclusion -- App. Select List of Anthropologists and Ethnologists who Informed Durkheim's Work -- Explanatory Notes -- Index.

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