Primitive Classification

by Émile Durkheim, Marcel Mauss

De quelques formes primitives de classification Dans ce classique de la sociologie de la connaissance, Durkheim et Mauss proposent de réécrire la table kantienne des catégories : l'acquisition de nos concepts fondamentaux et la maîtrise des jugements logiques qu'ils rendent possibles ne sont pas, selon eux, le fruit des seules forces de l'individu, mais ont en fait une origine sociale. Cette hypothèse, ils la testent sur les concepts de genres et espèces. Ils entendent ainsi établir qu'en Amérique du Nord, chez les aborigènes d'Australie, tout autant que dans le système divinatoire chinois, stratification sociale et genres naturels primitifs se font écho : la classification des choses reproduit celle des hommes. Ce faisant, Durkheim et Mauss suggèrent qu'il y a continuité entre la faculté de classification déployée dans les sociétés primitives et celle à l'oeuvre dans nos sciences contemporaines - belle et généreuse manière de mettre en cause le Grand Partage. Marcel Mauss : 1872 - 1950 Il fut l'un des fondateurs de l'anthropologie sociale. Son oeuvre s'inscrit dans l'aventure collective de L'Année sociologique, revue dont il devint le pilier après la mort de Durkheim en 1917. Elle a durablement influencé la philosophie et les sciences sociales, notamment l'anthropologie, la sociologie des sciences, la psychologie sociale, l'histoire des techniques et l'archéologie. Emile Durkheim : 1858-1917 Sociologue de réputation mondiale il fut professeur de pédagogie et de sciences sociales à l'université de la Sorbonne et chef de file de l'école française de sociologie, ainsi que le fondateur de la revue L'Année sociologique en 1896.

Genres: Anthropology, Sociology, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Social Science, Theory, Academic

144 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

Much of Durkheim's work was concerned with how societies could maintain their integrity and coherence in modernity; an era in which traditional social and religious ties are no longer assumed, and in which new social institutions have come into being. His first major sociological work was The Division of Labor in Society (1893). In 1895, he published his Rules of the Sociological Method and set up the first European department of sociology, becoming France's first professor of sociology.

In 1896, he established the journal L'Année Sociologique. Durkheim's seminal monograph, Suicide (1897), a study of suicide rates amongst Catholic and Protestant populations, pioneered modern social research and served to distinguish social science from psychology and political philosophy. The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912), presented a theory of religion, comparing the social and cultural lives of aboriginal and modern societies.

Durkheim was also deeply preoccupied with the acceptance of sociology as a legitimate science. He refined the positivism originally set forth by Auguste Comte, promoting what could be considered as a form of epistemological realism, as well as the use of the hypothetico-deductive model in social science. For him, sociology was the science of institutions,[citation needed] its aim being to discover structural social facts. Durkheim was a major proponent of structural functionalism, a foundational perspective in both sociology and anthropology. In his view, social science should be purely holistic; that is, sociology should study phenomena attributed to society at large, rather than being limited to the specific actions of individuals.

He remained a dominant force in French intellectual life until his death in 1917, presenting numerous lectures and published works on a variety of topics, including the sociology of knowledge, morality, social stratification, religion, law, education, and deviance. Durkheimian terms such as "collective consciousness" have since entered the popular lexicon.

Reviews

[versarbre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Men's classification of the world invariably started from the classification of the social groups. And they observe things in the forms of groups instead of individuals. Such collective representations arises from special social sentiments. For a social scientist, then, his task would be to reveal the sentiments and more elaborated collective representations of one society. It's both of intellectual benefits and practical utility.

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good question: what is the history of the idea of 'concept,' that certain things or abstractions 'belong' to each other? Have people always conceived the concept in the same way?

Bad answer: People got the idea to classify things because they were already classified into moeities, clans, and subclans, and all categorizations stemmed from people taking a good look at themselves.

[Luis Ignacio · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Se ha afirmado con harta frecuencia que el hombre comenzó por representarse las cosas relacionándolas consigo mismo. Lo que precede permite precisar mejor en qué consiste este antropocentrismo, que sería preferible llamar sociocentrismo. El centro de los primeros sistemas de la naturaleza no es el individuo, sino la sociedad"

[Brooklyn Butler · Rating 1 out of 5]

Booo tomatoes tomatoes throwing tomatoes

[Dyan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Originally published in 1903, this text has not aged well at all. Rodney Needham's introduction goes some way to highlight its many, many flaws. That being said, this was one of the first anthropological and sociological works to focus specifically on "classification" as a concept - and moreover, to contend that classification is a social process and not an inherently cognitive one, as had been argued by the psychology of the day. In that way it is indeed a "classic" academic text, and interesting to read as such.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

just awesome!

[Phoenix2 · Rating 2 out of 5]

A good athropologiacl study on the classification.