Subject of our study: religious sociology and the theory of knowledge -- Book 1: Preliminary questions -- 1. Definition of religious phenomena and of religion -- 1. Religion defined by supernatural and mysterious -- 2. Religion defined in connection with the idea of God or a spiritual being -- 3. Search for a positive definition -- 4. Necessity of another characteristic to distinguish magic from religion -- Book 2: Leading conceptions of the elementary religion -- Animism -- Distinction of animism and naturism -- The three theses of animism: genesis of the idea of the soul; formation of the idea of spirits; transformation of the cult of spirits into the cult of nature -- Criticism of the first thesis -- Distinction of the idea of the soul from that of a double -- Dreams do not account for the idea of the soul -- Criticism of the second thesis -- Death does not explain the transformation of a soul into a spirit -- The cult of the souls of the dead is not primitive -- Criticism of the third thesis -- The anthropomorphic instinct -- Spencer's criticism of it; reservations on this point -- Examination of the facts by which this instinct is said to be proved -- Difference between a soul and the spirits of nature -- Religious anthropomorphism is not primitive -- Conclusion: animism reduces religion to nothing more than a system of hallucinations -- Leading conceptions of the elementary religion -- Naturism -- History of the theory -- Exposition of Max Muller's naturism -- If the object of religion is to express natural forces, it is hard to see how it has maintained itself, for it expresses them in an erroneous manner -- Pretended distinction between religion and mythology -- Naturism does not explain the division of things into sacred and profane -- Totemism as an elementary religion -- Brief history of the question of totemism -- Reasons of method for which our study will be given specially to the totemism of Australia -- The place which will be given to facts from America -- The elementary beliefs -- Totemic beliefs -- The totem as name and as emblem -- Definition of the clan -- The totem as name of the clan -- Nature of the things which serve as totems -- Ways in which the totem is acquired -- The totems of phratries; of matrimonial classes -- The totem as emblem -- Totemic designs engraved or carved upon objects; tatooings or designs upon the body -- Sacred character of the totemic emblem -- The churinga.
The nurtunja -- The waninga -- Conventional character of totemic emblems -- Totemic beliefs -- The totemic animal and man -- Sacred character of the totemic animals -- Prohibition to eat them, them or pick the totemic plants -- Different moderations given these prohibitions -- Prohibition of contact -- The sacred character of the animal is less marked than that of the emblem -- The man -- His relationship with the totemic animal or plant -- Different myths explaining this relationship -- The sacred character of the man is more apparent in certain parts of the organism: the blood, hair, etc -- How this character varies with sex and age -- Totemism is not plant or animal worship -- Totemic beliefs -- The cosmological system of totemism and the idea of class -- The classification of things into clans, phratries and classes -- 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 -- 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 -- Totemic beliefs -- The individual totem and the sexual totem -- Individual totem as a forename; its sacred character -- Individual totem as personal emblem -- Bonds between the man and his individual totem -- Relations with the collective totem -- The totems of sexual groups -- Resemblances and differences with the collective and individual totems -- Their tribal nature -- Origins of these beliefs -- Critical examination of preceding theories -- Origins of these beliefs -- The notion of the totemic principle, or Mana, and the idea of fore -- Origins of these beliefs -- Origin of the idea of the totemic principle or Mana The idea of the soul -- The idea of spirits and Gods -- The principal ritual attitudes -- The negative cult and its functions -- The ascetic rites -- The positive cult -- The elements of sacrifice -- The positive cult -- Imitative rites and the principle of causality -- The positive cult -- Representative or commemorative rites.
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