Discursive Formation, Ethnographic Encounter, Photographic Evidence
The Centenary of Durkheim'sBasic Forms of Religious Lifeand the Anthropological Study of Australian Aboriginal Religion in His Time
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2163263 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jens Kreinath (0000-0003-4370-2339, Instituto Nacional de las Mujeres, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2012 |
| Volume | 25 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 367-420 |
| Publication date | 2012-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Visual Anthropology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0894-9468 • E-ISSN: 1545-5920 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/08949468.2012.720910 |
| OpenAlex | W2073559848 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 105 |
Historical research on the work of Émile Durkheim has often been confined to textual analysis aiming to reconstruct his research in the context of anthropological discourses at the turn of the 20th century. As radical changes in the visual culture of the late 19th century shaped the formation of anthropology as an academic discipline, the ambition of this article is to elaborate the ways Durkheim's use of ethnographic data and visual material formed the foundation of the theoretical and methodological design of his approach to religion. By tracing features in his Basic Forms that emphasize visual material and prioritize religious practice, I submit that the photographic evidence given in Spencer and Gillen's account of Aboriginal religion allowed Durkheim to theorize religion primarily through ritual. Photography, as a visual means of representation, enhanced the study of religion by focusing on ritual without necessarily demanding consideration of its mythical narratives and cosmological accounts. Based on a thorough analysis of his Basic Forms, this article argues that Durkheim used the photographs of the Aborigines of Central Australia systematically and that this use of photographs consequently guided his ethnographic depiction and his selection of theoretical concepts and methodological procedures
Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Context (archaeology · Depiction · Epistemology · Ethnography · Literature · Narrative · Photography · Politics · Representation (politics · Sociology · Visual anthropology · Visual arts · Visual culture · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Diverse Cultural and Historical Studies · Geographies of human-animal interactions · History · Law · Philosophy
Social organization
Sacrifice
Australian Aboriginal Religion. Central Australia; Conclusion
The Living Races of Mankind. A Popular Illustrated Account of the Customs, Habits, Pursuits, Feasts, and Ceremonies of the Races of Mankind throughout the World. By H. N. Hutchinson, J. W. Gregory, and R. Lydekker
Argonauts of the Western Pacific
Purity and Danger
Storytracking
Writing Culture
The Making of the Golden Bough
The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
J.G. Frazer and the Cambridge Ritualists and the “Scientific” Study of Religion
Report on the work of the Horn Scientific Expedition to Central Australia /
Rethinking visual anthropology
Observers observed
To take place
Picturing the Primitive
Picturing the Primitive
The Uses of Studying Primitives
The Uses of Studying Primitives
Robertson Smith’s Influence on Durkheim’s Theory of Myth and Ritual
Introduction
Spencer and Gillen in Durkheim
Durkheim and History
Framing the Victorians
The Ethnographer's Eye
On Durkheim's Elementary Forms of Religious Life
Durkheim's Sociology of Religion
The Cambridge Companion to Durkheim
The Native Tribes of South-East Australia
Material beings
Totemism in North‐western Australia1; (The Kimberley Division)
Totemism in North‐western Australia
The Australian dictionary of biography
Raw Histories
Anglo-German mythologics
Les Formes Elementaires de la Vie Religieuse; (Le Systeme Totemique en Australie)
The Cambridge Ritualists Reconsidered
Howitt and Fison
Humanity in the chrysalis stage’
Purity and Danger
Photography for Anthropologists
Arunta Totemism
Recent Discussions of Totemism
An Introduction to the History of Religion
Observations on Central Australian Totemism
Remarks on Totemism, with Especial Reference to Some Modern Theories Respecting It
Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford
Interpreting Aboriginal Religion
The Comparative Method in Anthropology [and Comments and Reply]
Anthropology as Cultural Critique
Some Remarks on Totemism as Applied to Australian Tribes
Photography and Sociology
"The Literary Impact of "The Golden Bough
Durkheim's Theory of Primitive Kinship
"Notes and Queries on Anthropology" and the Development of Field Methods in British Anthropology, 1870-1920
Durkheim and History
Durkheim on Society, Thought and Ritual
History and Religion in the Modern Age
Paradigms Behind (And Before) the Modern Concept of Religion
Frazer on Myth and Ritual
The Sacred Difference in the Elementary Forms
Arrernte
Knowledge and Visuality in Turn of the Century Anthropology
Minding experience
Retheorising Emile Durkheim on Society and Religion
The long-sought sacrament; Frazer and fieldwork on Australian totemism
Myth and Ritual
The Native Tribes of Central Australia
Totemism, an Analytical Study
The Australian Ethnological Expedition
Cheating Death
Questions Australiennes (II)
A Theory of Arunta Totemism
The Elementary Forms of Religious Life
The Savage Within
On Ethnographic Authority
Vernacular Christianity
The Gift
Australian Aboriginal Conception Beliefs Revisited
The Native Tribes of Central Australia
Ritual
Methods and Principles
Durkheim's argument on ritual, commemoration and aesthetic life
Inhabiting No-Man's Land
An Excess of Description
Durkheim's Epistemology
Durkheim, Frazer, and Smith
On Understanding a Sociological Classic
On Being Woken Up
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,31 |
| Citation span | 2013 - 2024 (12) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |