Magic and Religion in North Africa

...specific to it; it can be situated in space and time: it is born, lives, grows, withers, and dies. It is in reality a "thing"; and even if one does not admit this point of view, which is that of the Durkheim school See Durkheim, "Individual Representations and Collective Representations," in Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale, VI, 1898, pp. 273-302., at the very least, it will be agreed that it constitutes an almost indispensable bias for the study of civilization In fact, this is how all scholars proceed when they study a social institution. It has already been pointed out that philologists in particular treat languages as things having their own individuality. Cf. Meillet, "How Words Change Meaning," in Année Sociologique, 9th year, pp. 1-2..

It follows from this that religious institutions, at least in our modern societies, are in a civilization only one element of it, in the same way as, for example, legal institutions, morality, science, industry, agriculture, or art. And therefore, the expression "Muslim civilization" no longer seems adequate for what it designates. It is, however, well-founded, because it is one of the particular traits of Islam that it deeply permeates all the social manifestations of its followers with its religious character. This proposition calls for some development.

What characterizes religious phenomena is their mandatory force; beliefs and practices impose themselves simultaneously upon the faithful, and this obligation is sanctioned by religious powers, by public opinion, and by the State Durkheim, "On the Definition of Religious Phenomena," in Année Sociologique, II, pp. 1-28.. Now, in primitive societies, the individual is still so little differentiated from the collective...