Durkheim’s Two Theories of Sacrifice: Ritual, Social Change and Les Formes élémentaires de la vie religieuse

Author: Berghahn Journals Melissa  

Publisher: Berghahn Books

E-ISSN: 1752-2307|21|1|75-95

ISSN: 1362-024x

Source: Durkheimian Studies, Vol.21, Iss.1, 2015-12, pp. : 75-95

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Abstract

The article begins by examining Durkheim’s editorial role in thecreation of Hubert and Mauss’s essay on sacrifice, published in his newjournal, the Année sociologique, in 1899. It then brings out how, in LesFormes élémentaires de la vie religieuse, Durkheim operated both with an‘official’ and a more or less ‘hidden’ theory of sacrifice, the first based onthe approach in Hubert and Mauss’s essay, the second rooted in Durkheim’searlier views and critical editorial comments on Hubert and Mauss’s ideas.In the process it brings out, through a detailed analysis of the work’s chaptersspecifically on sacrifice but also on piacular rites, tensions, ambiguitiesand cross-purposes in the work as a whole. These especially turn roundDurkheim’s approach to violence and to the sacrificial offering or gift, andare also evident in his concern with different types of effervescence, thefoundational and commemorative, as well as the ‘joyous’ and piacular.The article concludes by linking these tensions with issues at stake inDurkheim’s interest in the French Revolution and account of the role ofeffervescence in moments of rupture and fundamental social change.