The codependence of Orientalism and the social sciences
Durkheim on religion in India
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6427451 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Prakash Shah (0000-0002-2149-0040, Queen Mary University of London, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 38 |
| Issue | 3-4 |
| Pages | 150-174 |
| Publication date | 2025-01-31 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | History of the Human Sciences (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0952-6951 • E-ISSN: 1461-720X |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/09526951241306299 |
| OpenAlex | W4407034758 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 39 |
Using Durkheim as an exemplary figure, this article takes up the problem of the entanglement of Orientalism with the social sciences. Durkheim is one of the classic theorists of the sociology of religion whose work remains relevant today. He drew on data relating to non-Western cultures, including India to a certain extent, in working out his theories of the division of labour and of religion. Durkheim's work is placed against the pioneering research programme of S. N. Balagangadhara on the comparative science of cultures. In doing so, the article takes up the common points of focus in their work: theory of religion; India; its religion, Hinduism; its religious law; and its caste system. Durkheim, it is argued, exemplifies the tying of Orientalism into the social sciences such that their facts and theories become problematic. Balagangadhara's research programme provides a means of understanding how this happens, and why it is a problem, and offers an alternative framework
Caste · Epistemology · Focus (optics · Hinduism · Orientalism · Political science · Social science · Sociology · Sociology of religion · Theology · Tying · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Law · Philosophy · Religion and Society Interactions · Religious studies · Weber, Simmel, Sociological Theory
Sacrifice
Durkheim Reconsidered
Reappraising Durkheim for the Study and Teaching of Religion Today
Emile Durkheim (1858–1917)
Teaching Durkheim
A General Jurisprudence of Law and Society
Rethinking secularization
Durkheim and the Jews of France
Epistemology and Practice
On Durkheim's Elementary Forms of Religious Life
Durkheim's Sociology of Religion
The Development of Durkheim's Social Realism
Understanding Theories of Religion
The Ideology of Religious Studies
Louis Dumont and Hierarchical Opposition
Europe, India, and the Limits of Secularism
From India to Australia and Back Again
The Heathen in His Blindness
Emile Durkheim, His Life and Work. A Historical and Critical Study
Types of Inter-Theoretic Reduction
Durkheim, Religion, and the Postcolonial Critique of Sociology’s Eurocentrism
The Division of Labour in Society
Incurably Religious? Consensus Gentium and the Cultural Universality of Religion
Why Durkheim really thought that Buddhism was a 'religion' (in memoriam Massimo Rosati)
The Place of Religion in Durkheim's Theory of Institutions
Colonialism and Modern Social Theory
The Elementary Forms of Religious Life
Theoretical Logic in Sociology
Western Sociologists on Indian Society
On the Question of Heritage and Hierarchy in British Social Anthropology
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |