The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life

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Collier Books, 1961 - Cross-cultural studies - 507 pages
First published 1912 under title Les formes elementaires de la vie religieuse...; Definition of religious phenomena & religion; totemic beliefs - as name and as emblem, designs, sacred character of ritual objects; relationship between totemic animal and man; cosmological system of totemism, classification of things into clans, phratries & classes; individual & sex totem; origin of beliefs (commenting on Frazer, Lang & Hill Tout); analysis of the idea of the soul (Strehlow & Spencer); ascetic rites, elements of sacrifice - Intichiuma ceremony; mortuary rites of Warraminga & Arunta; Mainly quotes Spencer & Gillen.

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Contents

part of the totemic principleExamination of the facts col
16
lective soulThe idea of the soul is not chronologically after
27
Definition of Religious Phenomena and of Religion
37

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