Nanlabi, Lei Nicole D.

Word Count: 459

2-BS Anthropology THEORY-K February 14, 2020

E. Durkheim’s The Cosmological System of Totemism and The Ideas of Class

A Reflection Paper

Durkheim was thinking about what made communities work together, about
what made them to become more cohesive. He believed that this unity was preserved
by common values and beliefs reinforced by rituals or communal action. Durkheim
demonstrates how totemic values form a society, contribute to social solidarity, and
eventually reflect society. Since totems are the basic form of kinship division, and
these fundamental divisions make up the basic structure of society, worship of totem
ancestors reflects the worship of society itself.
Totemism can not be separated from a very basic organisation of society— the
organization of clans. A clan members consider themselves to be related to each
other, not because of the connection to the blood, but because they bear the same
name. The totem belongs only to one clan, and no other clan can bear the same name.
It is usually the name of some species of animals or vegetables. It is also an emblem,
a kind of badge, a coat of arms. The image is replicated everywhere, drawn on rocks
and on earth.
Professor Durkheim's concept of mana provides an interpretation of totemism.
Hence, the question of the root of totemism is the topic of mana origin. How and what
materials led men to develop the idea of mana? What has aroused the idea of an
impersonal force in their minds is society, in the view of Professor Durkheim. The
symbol is the sign both of the god and of humanity at once. It means, god and society
are one, and the clan's god is the clan itself.
Therefore, social relations supply everything possible to awaken the sense of
the spiritual in the minds of men. The individual's relationship to society is one of
dependency close to that between worshippers and their gods. Society pursues goals
that are not individual ends and it demands that people abandon their own interests.
This demands that he surrender his wishes and sometimes his soul, and that he obeys.
He has a sense of respect for it that stops him from doing what they forbid. In addition,
society has a strengthening and vitalizing effect on the person which is not always
easy to detect but is significant. He has increased confidence in himself when a man
is in communion of thought with his fellow-men.
Moreover, Durkheim says totemism is the central unifying principle of
mechanical solidarity in a society. Nevertheless, in broader industrial societies,
collective consciousness is no longer the sole regulator of action. Social cohesion is
maintained here through professional and social relations created by the
interdependence of the groups, careers and services needed to maintain this complex
society or what he calls organic solidarity.