Durkheim in Dialogue

Sondra L. Hausner is Oxford¹s first University Lecturer in the Study of Religion. An anthropologist by training, she teaches social and cultural theories of religion in the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford. Her ethnographic work focuses on Himalayan and South Asian religions and the social dynamics of ritual. She won the Joseph W. Elder Prize in the Indian Social Sciences from the American Institute of Indian Studies for her Durkheim-inspired monograph, Wandering with Sadhus: Ascetics in the Hindu Himalayas (Indiana University Press, 2007).

“This volume is a timely contribution in rethinking the socially immanent dimensions of religion in contemporary times and I would recommend it to any student or scholar studying religion and its various relationships with both classical and contemporary anthropology.” · Social Anthropology“The volume conveys the potential of Elementary Forms to inspire new areas of research in the field of cognitive studies and of collective processes and rituals more specifically. As the contributors suggest, there is much to explore in contemporary phenomena by wary of Durkheim’s original approach to the study of religion.” · Durkheimian Studies/Etudes Durkheimiennes“…the volume as a whole shows that dialogue is how knowledge advances and that Durkheim is still worth talking about and talking to.” · Anthropology Review Database

• AcknowledgmentsList of ContributorsIntroduction: Durkheim in Disciplinary DialogueSondra L. HausnerChapter 1. The Notion of Soul and Science Positive: A Retrieval of Durkheim’s MethodKaren E. FieldsPART I: SOCIAL FORMSChapter 2. Return to Durkheim: Civil Religion and the Moral Reconstruction of ChinaZhe JiChapter 3. Elementary Forms of War: Performative Aspects of Youth Militia in Sierra LeonePaul RichardsChapter 4. Elementary Forms vs. Psychology in Contemporary CinemaLouise ChildPART II: COLLECTIVE MINDSChapter 5. Durkheim’s Sacred-Profane Opposition: What Should We Make of It?N.J. AllenChapter 6. Durkheim and the Primitive Mind: An Archaeological RetrospectiveClive GambleChapter 7. Durkheim, Anthropology, and the Question of the Categories in Les Formes Élémentaires de la vie ReligieuseSusan Stedman JonesPART III: EFFERVESCENCEChapter 8. Is Individual to Collective as Freud is to Durkheim?Sondra L. HausnerChapter 9. Collective Representations, Discourses of Power, and Personal Agency: Three Incommensurate Histories of a Collaborator’s Rebellion in the Colonial SudanGerd BaumannChapter 10. Actants Amassing (AA): Beyond Collective Effervescence and the SocialAdam Yuet ChauFINChapter 11. The Creation and Problematic Achievement of Les Formes ÉlémentairesW. Watts Miller