Weebly



Emile DurkheimIntroduction to Sociology:Religion begins in group collective moments Sociology of ReligionAugust Comte (d. 1857)Law of three stagesTheological stage: earliest form of the group. Understanding the god and goddessPhilosophy Stage: tool for people to use rational thinking and abstract thoughts and universal applicable thoughtsModern Period:Positivism: empirical data (taste, touch…) is the only way to understand the world. Positivism or EmpiricismThe scientific study of social facts by means of controlled comparisonSocial facts: just as real as empirical but cant but your hands on exactlyThis will be the discipline of sociologyHow religion stems from group experience Religion as a social institution Human beings as a species lack in such we are dependent on others. It is argued we are more dependent on social gathering than any other speiciesReligious expressions are always embedded in specific social contextsSocial Fact: observable; the kind of givens elements that are always highly influential in human nature. Example: a custom of a given people, views of normality, notion of good behavior, language ( it was around before we were born; has been around for a long time) They are contingent (change in time); localized with particular groups Social institution: it’s a concept and structure that meets a purpose or function and it is carried out by a systematic organization of people or person.Example: education, government, law, notion of family and what counts as family, vocation, religion Religion is always understood to be influenced by the social context in which it is found Emile Durkheim (d. 1917)Functionalist approach: not interested in the content but the function and how it preserves social groupMove to the study of history and philosophyElementary forms of the religious life (1912)Best known book19th Century Europe (his son died but he kept to himself) began his work by looking at the Europe of his daywhat can you learn about social groups and changes in recent times (what he would observe) industrial revolution French revolutionChanges in European societySecondary relationships were becoming more important than primary relationships Class conflict emergesThis is the marker of the modern era begins This comes at the expense of another perosnAnomie and SuicideNormal/Abnormal socially definedSuicide rate differs by religious identityFour Key areas of Social Change:Traditional social customs are giving way to a kind of private interest and an emergence of a new model of economic exchange…capitalism (causes conflict within the society)Begin to emphasizes “this worldly concerns” one could have a blessed after life and go to heaven. But this changes and instead you focus on here and now. Reason is replacing religion emphasisSocial control is moving from the elite few to popular movements ( the people) people are developing and attaching to political parties. DemocracyLook at the new individual freedom that is emerging from the technological and political changes. People have more free time but with this lack of close connection: feelings of loneliness and isolation emerge. He is interested in looking at suicide [note that the big changes affect the peoples change]“Anomie”lacking a sense of normalcysuicide should be looked at with anomiesuicide should be looked at as a decision that is not an individual choice but a social group (social pressures)it’s a social phenomenoncultural assumptions about the questions of suicide individuals who are closely integrated into the social group are less likely to commit suicide compared to if you feel more left out Social Facts & objectivity of the social: generated from groups rather than individuals. Examples of social facts would be language, what’s right and what’s wrong. You can test and analyze them. May not be tangible but you can still analyze them. They are said to be objective by being seen as universal and a larger idea.All religions are based off assumptions and that are scared. More focused on the taxonomy of religion. More of the function of religion. Taxonomy is the organizing of classesIt is the organizing principle; seeing the world in terms of different “classes” of objects. Scared/profane: a group of superior and forbidden things. Not necessarily good or bad. Profane are your everyday and ordinary practices. Definition of Religion: a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to scared things and beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a church, all those who adhere to them. The second element which thus finds a place in our definition is no less essential that the first; for by showing the idea of religion is inseparable from that of the church, it makes it clear that religion should be eminently collective thing. Totemic Principle: the hidden force worshipped by the clan. He stresses the importance of rituals and how they help us understand the fundamental ideas better. The principle is the underlying logic that lies behind the belief in totems, a concrete object that the clan holds as scared. An example would be the Clemson tiger. “churanga”: movable totem that he uses as an example. Because men are organized, it allows them to organize religion itself.He doesn’t think that magic and religion are related. He says that there is no church of magic. He thinks that religion is about the sacred and the community. Magic is about the personal and is an individual concern. Magicians have a clientele and religion has a church. 3 Types of ritual Practices:Negative: insulate the scared from the profane. Consist chiefly of prohibitions, or taboos. The point of this practice is to keep the scared off limits. They stress self sacrifice or self indulgence. Move towards the sacred. Taboo: negatives that grow. Positive: the practice of promoting the welfare of their totem.Intichiuma: the totem meal, where they end up eating the totem. Once in a year, there is a reversal of protecting the kin (totem), the animal itself will be sacrificed and consumed.A modern example would be communion, the lords supper, Piacular: show the double sided power of the sacred, which can be dark and distressed as well as bright and affirming. Social Facts & objectivity of the social: generated from groups rather than individuals. Examples of social facts would be language, what’s right and what’s wrong. You can test and analyze them. May not be tangible but you can still analyze them. They are said to be objective by being seen as universal and a larger idea.All religions are based off assumptions and that are scared. More focused on the taxonomy of religion. More of the function of religion. Taxonomy is the organizing of classesIt is the organizing principle; seeing the world in terms of different “classes” of objects. Scared/profane: a group of superior and forbidden things. Not necessarily good or bad. Profane are your everyday and ordinary practices. Definition of Religion: a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to scared things and beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a church, all those who adhere to them. The second element which thus finds a place in our definition is no less essential that the first; for by showing the idea of religion is inseparable from that of the church, it makes it clear that religion should be eminently collective thing. Totemic Principle: the hidden force worshipped by the clan. He stresses the importance of rituals and how they help us understand the fundamental ideas better. The principle is the underlying logic that lies behind the belief in totems, a concrete object that the clan holds as scared. An example would be the Clemson tiger. “churanga”: movable totem that he uses as an example. Because men are organized, it allows them to organize religion itself.He doesn’t think that magic and religion are related. He says that there is no church of magic. He thinks that religion is about the sacred and the community. Magic is about the personal and is an individual concern. Magicians have a clientele and religion has a church. 3 Types of ritual Practices:Negative: insulate the scared from the profane. Consist chiefly of prohibitions, or taboos. The point of this practice is to keep the scared off limits. They stress self sacrifice or self indulgence. Move towards the sacred. Taboo: negatives that grow. Positive: the practice of promoting the welfare of their totem.Intichiuma: the totem meal, where they end up eating the totem. Once in a year, there is a reversal of protecting the kin (totem), the animal itself will be sacrificed and consumed.A modern example would be communion, the lords supper, The soul is the voice of society and taking it into oneself. The idea of deity is projecting out into the worldPiacular: show the double sided power of the sacred, which can be dark and distressed as well as bright and affirming. An example of this would be a funeral. It would be sad that the person has left everyone but happy that his soul has gone to a better place.Funerals are for the living, they recognize that a member has died but they all come together to make the connection of the group even stronger. The important part is the gestures made during the ritual itselfCollective effervescences: baptism, confirmation, ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download