The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life by Émile Durkheim

CHAPTER III

91 words  |  Chapter 11

TOTEMIC BELIEFS--(_continued_) _The Cosmological System of Totemism and the Idea of Class_ I.--The classification of things into clans, phratries and classes 141 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 origin 144 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 religion 148