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Libra Esoterica

The elementary forms of the religious life

a study in religious sociology

Also known as Formes élémentaires de la vie religieuse

by Émile Durkheim & Joseph Ward Swain (Translator)

  • First published:
  • 20th century
  • Languages: English, French
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Description

Description from Project Gutenberg (opens in a new tab)

"The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life" by Émile Durkheim is a book published in 1912 that analyzes religion as a social phenomenon. Durkheim argues that religious beliefs emerge from communal living and emotional bonds within society. Through studying totemic societies in Australia, he proposes that sacred symbols actually represent society itself. Durkheim identifies the concept of the sacred as the unifying element across all religions, defining religion as a system of beliefs and practices that unite communities around things set apart as forbidden. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Provenance

Why this book is in the catalog

Included because retained bibliographic metadata links this work to Ancient religions, animism, and ritual.

  • Ancient religions, animism, and ritual

    Controlled discovery queries from online-books-page, openlibrary, and project-gutenberg matched “Rites and ceremonies”, “rites and ceremonies”, “Totemism”, and 1 additional term(s). Retained metadata contains “Animism” in the subject metadata, “Cults” in the subject metadata, “Rites and ceremonies” in the subject metadata, and 1 additional metadata match(es).

    • “Rites and ceremonies”· via The Online Books Page
    • “Totemism”· via The Online Books Page
    • “Totemism”· via Open Library
    • “rites and ceremonies”· via Project Gutenberg
    • “totemism”· via Project Gutenberg
    • “Animism”· in subject

Membership records how this book met the catalog’s discovery criteria — relevance to a tradition, not a judgment of the book’s claims.

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Editions

Open Library reports 22 editions; 4 cataloged here.

The Online Books Page curated catalog record

London: G. Allen and Unwin, 1964

1964———Source listed online copy

a study in religious sociology

Open Library record

1915G. Allen & Unwin; MacmillanEnglish, French—Public

Open Library record

1915[publisher not identified]English
  • 9781497332201
  • 1497332206
Public

Subjects

16 subject headings

Identifiers & provenance

How this record was assembled, and the authority identifiers it carries.

Identifiers

ISBN-13
ISBN-10
LCCN
OCLC
Open Library work
Project Gutenberg
Internet Archive
Open Library work (alias)

Cataloging notes

  • Open Library reports 22 editions; this snapshot catalogs one representative edition and preserves work-level ISBN, date, and publisher aggregates.
  • Open Library reports 4 editions; this snapshot catalogs one representative edition and preserves work-level ISBN, date, and publisher aggregates.
  • Original print publication date and source edition are absent from Project Gutenberg metadata.
  • Source-listed Library of Congress call number(s): GN470 .D8 1964
  • The Online Books Page bibliographic note: London: G. Allen and Unwin, 1964
  • Translators: Swain, Joseph Ward
Catalog id
openlibrary-work:OL15824685W
Edition coverage
Multi source partial
Retrieved