Theory

Evolutionist

Diffusionist

Pyschoanalytic

Historical
Particularism

Functionalist (individual)

Structuralist

Interpretivist

Contructivist

 

Functionalist (societal focus - sometimes termed "structural functionalist")
- as exemplified by Emile Durkheim (1858 - 1917) and A. R. Radcliffe-Brown (1881 - 1955)  

Emile Durkheim
No single individual has had greater impact on the social sciences and anthropology than Durkheim. Born into long line of French rabbis and educated in Old Testament and Hebrew studies, he never-the-less became an agnostic. Durkheim tried University life but dropped out, only finally to return and graduate second from the bottom. But by the 1890s, he had established himself, by publishing such monumental works as Division of Labor in Society (1893) and Suicide (1897) and Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1915). He also experienced tremendous tragedy - World War I. All his students, except one killed, but including his own brilliant son, were killed. The "war to end all wars" wiped out one of the most promising classes of intellectual minds. Durkheim never recovered, dying at age 59. But his legacy would not die, continued among such British Anthropologists as Radcliffe-Brown, Fortes, Nadel, and later American anthropologists such as Redfield, Eggan, Tax and Nash.

Durkheim's fundamental questions revolved around: what keeps society together? What maintains social solidarity? How does the individual support society? He refocused the discussion from the psychology and "superego"- the interior - to the exterior - social solidarity. Key points:

"Religion" (as "social facts" and as acts of worship) can not be both the consequence of "Social Solidarity" as well as the cause and Prime Mover of it. To argue such is a circular argument, which is nothing more than a descriptive observation, which can not be theoretically substantiated.

But one can argue that humans formulate religious institutions to help promote social solidarity, a lineal causation.

Humans   >   Religion   >   Social Solidarity

 

Theory

Evolutionist

Diffusionist

Pyschoanalytic

Historical
Particularism

Functionalist (individual)

Structuralist

Interpretivist

Contructivist

 

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