Religious Rituals and Logical Thought in Durkheim

Abstract

Abstract In The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, ritual has a central function in Durkheim’s argument. It is on its redefinition that the constitution of sacred things rests, in relation to the constitution of the group itself and to the formation of categories of thought. In this study, we restore the basis of this conception: the interpretation of the ritual of the intichiuma, and more particularly its mimetic dimension, which prevails over its sacrificial dimension. The relationship between practice and objective thought then turns out to be the touchstone of the concept of the sacred developed by Durkheim.