Abstract
The subject of this essay is the understanding of magic developed by French sociologist É. Durkheim in his well-known study of the elementary forms of religious life. Starting with refutation of critics bring out by Mary Douglas in Purity and Danger, the author argues that Durkheim and W. Robertson Smith used magic predominantly for analytical purposes, to separate the particular kind of manipulation with supernatural forces from other religious practices. In continuation, Durkheim's standpoint is discussed on the problem of totemism, difference between social and public and A. van Gennep's conception of the individual magical power as a socially recognized form of the "pivoting of the sacred". The essay concludes with argumentation that Durkheim developed his conception of most elementary form of religion by additionally generalization of the main propositions on which H. Hubert and M. Mauss already founded their theory of magic.
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