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CHAPTER III. Totemic Beliefs--(_continued_)

The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life · Émile Durkheim — chapter 7 of 36 · ~91 words · public domain

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TOTEMIC BELIEFS--(continued)

The Cosmological System of Totemism and the Idea of Class

I.--The classification of things into clans, phratries and classes 141

II.--Genesis of the notion of class: the first classifications of things take their forms from society--Differences between the sentiment of the differences of things and the idea of class-- Why this is of social origin 144

III.--Religious significance of these classifications: all of the things classified into a clan partake of the nature of the totem and its sacred character--The cosmological system of totemism--Totemism as the tribal religion 148

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