Views on Rituals of Durkheim - Essay Example

DURKHEIM’S VIEWS ON RITUALS AND ITS APPLICATION TO THE INTERPRETATION OF THE SOCIAL ROLES OF THE MEDIA Contents INTRODUCTION 3 DURKHEIM’S VIEWS OF RITUALS 4 Religion 6 Rituals 7 TRANSITION OF RITUALS FROM RELIGION TO SECULAR LIFE 9 MEDIA AND RITUALISATION 10 DURKHEIM’S VIEWS ON RITUALISATION AND THE MEDIA 12 CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF DURKHEIM’S VIEW ON RITUALS AND THE MEDIA 13 CONCLUSION 15 Bibliography 16 INTRODUCTION Religion used to be an important and significant aspect of life in Europe before the Age of Reformation in Europe (Garnham, 2000). Up till today, there are some societies in which religion plays a central and vital role. In countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), India and Africa, religious rituals provide the primary framework and code of ethics for conducting oneself. However, during the Renaissance in Europe, nationalism and empiricism took the centre-stage and people commenced viewing life through the lenses of realism as opposed to religion and the rituals. In this process, the media became an important tool for communication, sharing information and influencing people (Garnham, 2000). Therefore, in Europe and the western world, the media become dominant and important whilst religion and the role of the European church waned (Viault, 2013). This paper examines the concept religious rituals as it is presented in Durkheim’s analysis and how this gives an explanation to the social significance of contemporary media. In order to attain this end, the following objectives are explored: 1. A critical review and evaluation of the concept of rituals in Durkheim’s perspective 2. The gaps in religion and rituals and how it has been influenced 3. Elements of contemporary media and its similarities with religious rites. The paper will begin by evaluating and analysing what rituals are and why they exist. This will be done by assessing and evaluating the processes and views presented by Durkheim in his attempt to philosophise and conceptualise religion in the context of rituals. This will be expanded and extended to cover various aspects and processes of interaction and social significance in order to provide answers to the fundamental questions and concepts. The research will therefore proceed to compare rituals and the media and how the media plays a role in presenting different views and ideologies about people in the society. This will help to provide a background for juxtaposition and contemporary analysis of religion and rituals in order to provide important commonalities and discussions. DURKHEIM’S VIEWS OF RITUALS Religion in Europe was mainly based on the Church with its core nucleus in Vatican (Viault, 2013). This had its root and origins steeped in the ancient elements of the Roman Empire and the Catholic Church. However, after the Protestant Reformation and the Age of Enlightenment, European citizens began to make demands for fairer and just methods of promoting justice, liberty and equality. This is mainly steeped in the French and American Revolutions that challenged the traditional system that was based on spirituality and religion (Brennan, 2010). Emile Durkheim emerged as a philosopher at the turn of the 20th Century and he sought to conceptualise various ideas and views in a modern philosophical framework. Through this, he redefined some important things and aspects of the European society. This enabled him to present important ideas and definitions that were crystallised into various concepts that became important and fundamental in the interpretation of 20th Century thoughts. One of the areas Durkheim wrote about related to social and religious views. One of them was the conceptualisation and presentation of views of what religion ought to be about in relation to the contemporary processes and systems in the society he lived in. Some of them included religion and other processes that are relevant and connected to religious beliefs in the contemporary and modernising system of Europe that Durkheim lived in. “A religious system may be said to be most primitive which we can observe when it fulfils the two following conditions: 1. When it is found in a society whose organisation is surpassed by no others in simplicity; 2. When it is possible to explain it without making use of any element borrowed from a previous religion” (Durkheim, 2012, p. 1) For the purpose of Durkheim’s discourse, he defined religion as a system and a process through which people lived a very simplistic lifestyle. This means that people were living in a way and manner in which they could have basic processes that were more of emotional and subjective rather than objective and mainly related to empirical learning. Hence, people in a religious system are to carry out their activities without critically using scientific methods and processes to critically review and analyse things and information related to the case at hand. Secondly, Durkheim’s view of religion relates to the fact that people do things and carry out their activities on the basis of some kind of “original revelation”. Hence, they use faith and other non-scientific methods and processes for analysing and explaining things. This includes the use of various processes and various methods that are based on revelation and other methods and approaches for evaluating things that is not scientific. They do not rely on other sources and other books like the Bible and other religious books. This implies that primary and basic religions are ones in which certain authoritative figures are seen to be absolute. And due to their perceived powers and authorities, such persons’ views and opinions are used as authoritative sources. Hence, these religious groups rely on revelations and supernatural powers and authorities of these authoritative figures. Therefore, the religion is based on the capabilities and authorities of people who are seen to have great powers and great authorities. Hence, religion is seen as a central aspect of the social structures and authority of the people and the authorities in the system and the community. Religion To Durkheim, religion is primarily a social phenomenon. “Religion contains in itself from the very beginning, even in an indistinct state, all the elements which have given rise to various manifestations of collective lives.” (Bell, 2012, p. 24). This implies that religion is a social system and it seeks to put people in a social grouping in which they are required to join and create an identity to qualify to be called members of the society or the community. This is because religion creates a platform within which people from different backgrounds and groupings are unified within a given context through which they will be able to deal with issues and become members. “All known religious beliefs present one common characteristic – they presuppose a classification of all things, real and ideal of which men think into two classes or opposed groups, generally designated by the words profane and sacred” (Bell, 2012, p. 24). This means that religion is about a classification of the acts and conducts of people in a given society. Thus, religion creates a duality system through which actions and processes are classified as either sacred or profane. This is based on the authoritative sources of the religion a person is in. Hence, religion is based on the classification of actions as either right or not. Thus, religion institutionalises various conducts and various processes. This allows a person to identify which action and which processes are permitted and which ones are not permitted. This allows people to analyse and evaluate conducts based on a set of generally accepted rules and principles for conduct and processes. Rituals According to Durkheim, rituals are “rules of conduct” governing how people should act in the presence of sacred objects (Bell, 2012). This implies that rituals are somewhat related to the rules and regulations that puts a person in an acceptable state or situation as opposed to one who is involved in actions that are considered to be inappropriate and wrong. Rituals are designed to arouse a passionate intensity, feelings of effervescence in which individual individuals experience something larger than themselves. In other words, rituals give way for concepts like the issue of the “greater good” and better processes and activities for a higher course. This implies that religion puts in place rituals as a means of safeguarding the core values and the important things of the society. Durkheim views rituals as a system of safeguarding long-standing traditions and important processes in a given religion in order to keep the religion thriving and going. Religion allows a person to explain things that occurred. And religious procedures are obligatory and this gives meaning to practices and processes. Religion actually seeks to bring to life, the beliefs and ideas of a given religious movement or group. Hence, Durkheim argues that religion is based on myths and these are re-enacted or actualised by people pursuing practices in order to relive important events that happened in the past which gave impetus to a given religion (Idinopulos & Wilson, 2013). “Amongst religious rituals, perhaps none is more complicated or open to different interpretations than sacrifice. It is commonly found in a large number of religions, be the sacrifice a bloody one involving animals or a spiritualised form of sacrifice as in Christianity.” (Allen & Miller, 2013, p. 9). A sacrifice is interpreted in different ways and manners. They are almost always central in relationship and the following of almost all rituals demand some kind of sacrifice. And this enables a person to build some commonality and closeness to the deity that is worshiped in a given religion. Therefore, rituals have a basis that is steeped in sacrifice and the desire to do what is required in a spectacular and appropriate way and manner. Authority is the fundamental request and the basis for a ritual (Allen & Miller, 2013). This is because an authority or deity that is in the centre of a given religion provides the basis for religion. Therefore, rituals are almost always connected to various authorities and they seek to provide the background and impetus for streamlining conducts and determining what is right and what is not right. Durkheim’s view of rituals indicates that religious rites are important and they hep to build a community of people with similar beliefs (Mitchell, 2010). This is because psychologically, engaging in religious rituals creates a kind of membership and connection to the group which enables a person to feel a sense of belonging. Also, religious rituals may be social, as well as spiritual at the same time. This implies that rituals creates a collective conscience and this gives a kind of moral authority which brings about some kind of social unification and the creation of a monolithic and a socially powerful unification of different persons and different people in a single context of religion. Therefore, religion can be viewed as a collective representation and rituals are seen as symbolic interpretation of the views and core beliefs of a given people or group (Alexander & Smith, 2013). And from Durkheim’s perspective, for a ritual to occur, there must be two or more people assembled and they must focus on an object or action and share a common mood or emotion (Alexander & Smith, 2013). Religion and rituals are two important elements and aspects of society. It brings unity and re-enacts some common myths. It involves the bringing to life of the activities that formed the core basis of the religion. This implies that rituals are important in unifying members of a given creed and this enables people to review, analyse and re-enact important aspects of the religion in order to remain faithful to the core values of the religion. TRANSITION OF RITUALS FROM RELIGION TO SECULAR LIFE Durkheim sought to argue in his core texts that religion was dead and over. And to him, religion and rituals were somewhat meant to be replaced by some core elements and aspects of the wider society. This is because after the Age of Reformation, the principles of the Medieval times were put aside in favour of more modern and more secular and scientific methods. Therefore, the strict aspects and subjective views of religion and rituals found its way into various aspects of life in the society. “With respect to the French Revolution, Durkheim wrote: under the influence of the general enthusiasm, things purely secular in nature became transformed into sacred things: these were fatherland, liberty and reason. A religion tended to become established which had its dogmas, symbols, altars and feasts” (Omer & Springs, 2012, p. 69). The French Revolution was one of the fundamental changes and paradigm shifts in the social and cultural structures of Europe. This paved the way for a sudden shift in the ideologies and worldview of the French people and it spread to other parts of the continent. The Russian Revolution followed a century later. And in these revolutions, religious rituals and other elements of the society that had links to religion had to be changed and modified in order to make way for nationalism. Secularisation of religious theories and philosophies is at the centre of the religious and socio-cultural systems of societies. Hence, there are aspects of religion and other aspects of rituals that are in the different branches of the society and the community. MEDIA AND RITUALISATION Discourses and processes in the media also tilt towards generally accepted methods and systems of the social order. In other words, the operation of the media seeks to demonstrate a natural system and a natural process that is similar to other communication systems and processes as it exists in the normal and standard society. Rituals form a system of ideas by means of which individuals imagine the society of which they are members and the obscure yet intimate relations they have with it (Couldry, 2005). This implies that the media in its historic development had to be carried out in a way and manner that reflected the main values and convictions of the society within which it operates and carries out its activities. Thus, sacred objects and important objects are presented in the media based on the core and fundamental ideals and views of the wider society (Couldry, 2005). It therefore follows that the media is drawn into the society by being affected and affecting the society’s definition of sacred and profane and what is right and wrong. This is because for the media to be accepted to be credible, it needs to play according to the rules and principles of the society. When the media gains credibility, it gradually assumes the position of telling people what is sacred and what is not. Therefore, in Segregated United States of America, it was forbidden and deemed contemptuous for the media to broadcast information about the Civil Rights Movement. This is because it was viewed that Blacks in America were not supposed to do certain things. Therefore, the media played a role in conserving the structures of the society. In today’s world, one will expect the media to promote the core and fundamental aspects of the society. However, the media has also built that capability and competency to define right and wrong in its own context and procedure. Media rituals are formalised actions and organised around key media-related categories and boundaries whose performance frames suggest a competition with the media-related values (Deacy & Warwick, 2012). Hence, social order underlies the media’s values. The media creates social order which underlies the media’s values and processes. Therefore, social order and myths of the society are furthered and forwarded by the media. From another angle, it can be argued that the media also reproduces dominant religious beliefs and use them to run their affairs (Deacy & Warwick, 2012). This is because the media reflects some actions and processes that were traditionally conducted by the religious movements around the world. An example is the case of talkshows which uses important features like confessions and attempt to promote some aspects of spirituality and religious activities. These things are mainly things that were carried out in the past by religious entities and organisations. Also, the media has a role in defining the most ideal and the most important elements and people in the society. Programmes that bring out celebrities and portray exceptional people as model individuals and respectable people are often based on Biblical and other spiritual characters who have are presented to members of the public in a manner that will enable the public to emulate them and view them as role models. The media therefore operates within the conventional context of sacred and profane and right and wrong. This enables the construction of people and certain aspects and persons in the media. Thus the media promotes social order and builds on the foundation of the wider society in order to promote the right processes of the society. Social order and the media’s need to preserve this is somewhat a symbiotic process. It involves various processes and actions that are carried out in a way and manner that causes the media and social order or religious beliefs to work hand in hand to shape and influence the society. The social order and elements of religion forms the foundation for defining honesty and ideal standards for the media. This enables the media to build its credibility and based on that, the media also evolves to become an important and powerful entity in the society that can redefine the values of the society. Hence, ritualisation and religion have evolved to a point where the society is influenced and affected significantly by the processes and aspects of these religious values. This causes the media to shape and be shaped by the religious beliefs and rituals of its time. DURKHEIM’S VIEWS ON RITUALISATION AND THE MEDIA Durkheim believed strongly that religion shapes the society (Hoover, 2012). This implies that rituals are important and in order to ensure identity and social solidarity, religion’s prescription of right and wrong plays a significant role in defining people’s position and their processes. However, nationalist and populist views are also built around religious contexts and processes (Brinks, Simms, & Rock, 2012). Most totalitarian regimes like the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany could only change the social system by presenting strong and vibrant nationalist ideas that replaced religious systems. These nationalist “truths” were put ahead of the religious “truths” and this was put in place of religious rituals. Either ways, the media was transformed significantly and this was done to reflect the relevant “truths” as they were portrayed by the dominant authorities in the society and community. Information is always presented in a positive manner to enable the society and community to present its views through the media. Communities are created and presented to the media. The contemporary media is therefore influenced significantly by the dominant beliefs and rituals of the society (Sumaila, 2012). Other authorities argue that the media nurtures collective emotions and this defines what is the right ritual of the time and what is right and wrong (Turner, 2012). Therefore, the media is a moral force that creates a moral culture and this is based on the rituals and how they are interpreted in the society and the community by the people at the helm of affairs. The media can also be seen as the institutionalisation of individualism. This implies that the media provides some kind of expressive revolution and this causes the society to question the dominant rituals of the time and make changes where necessary (Turner, 2012). CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF DURKHEIM’S VIEW ON RITUALS AND THE MEDIA Durkheim’s view indicates that religion is not scientific but it is somewhat subjective and it is based on what people think or feel at a given time. Religion is somewhat based on things that are not scientific or empirical. Hence, they create some kind of rules that are based on metaphysical thoughts and ideas. This implies that the society is steeped in the need for some kind of rules to govern people’s conduct. Also, religion and its practices are based on the view of authoritarianism. This is because religion enables a person to carry out various activities and this is based on the definition of what is right and what is not. The institutionalisation of religion implies that people build a lifestyle based on what the religion states and this is sanctioned and monitored by the authorities of the religious movement or group. Hence, religion is seen as an important and vital thing and it is sanctioned by the relevant authorities of it. The media also seeks to present information about authoritative and credible sources. Although these authoritative individuals in the society might not necessarily be doing what is right or appropriate, their views and ideas are presented in a way and manner that makes them seem to be more superior human beings than the ordinary person of the society. This is based on various metaphysical approaches and views of life and the way people do things. Religion is a collectivist system and it defines what is right and wrong and it sets standards for membership. This includes the identification of various approaches and systems for the conduct of various activities and processes. Therefore, religion is important in helping people to do things and to conduct their affairs in a way and manner that is right and is acceptable in the society. In the same way, the media also seem to be a force for helping people to set up the right guidelines and to define right and wrong in the appropriate and most important context for people to do what is befitting of them in the society. Durkheim also identifies that rituals are a code of conducts on what to do at certain times and in certain situations. In likewise manner, the media is able to dictate what is ideal and what must be done in a given situation or context. This enables the media to be compared and placed on the same level as religious movements. And in history, there have been times where the media has been used as a system for defining right and proper conduct. Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union and other totalitarian regimes have used the media to change people’s perspectives and gotten them to do what is expected of the society through the use of the media as a tool and a system for attaining results and informing people. CONCLUSION Durkheim’s analysis of religion indicates that religion is subjective and this is the same as the way the media operates and the way it operates as a central and important feature of the society and the community. Religion and rituals are a symbol of unification and it provides some kind of authority. The media gradually becomes an important part of any society. It brings together the people just like religion and with time, it becomes an accepted method and system of defining the core values and processes of the nation. The media is like religion because Durkheim identifies that religion is collectivist in nature and it helps the society to work together to define the core values of the society and also control the conduct of people in the society. This helps to guide the conduct of people. The media is a watchdog entity that helps to identify the wrongs in society and eliminate them. It also encourages the right actions and processes and acts as a moral authority. The media affects and is affected by the dominant rituals and the dominant values of the society as defined by the authorities in the society. The media is an important tool that defines social order. This is done in a symbiotic manner that involves the definition of the different aspects and contexts of the society. Rituals are the codes of conducts for people and its concepts like sacrifice and other things are very dominant and they shape the way people think and analyse things. Sacrifice is portrayed in the contemporary form to the society through the media and this helps to encourage the media to become a tool for social change and reinterpreting aspects and elements of a given society or community. Bibliography Alexander, J. C., & Smith, P. (2013). The Cambridge Companion - Durkheim. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press. Allen, N. J., & Miller, W. (2013). On Durkheims Elementary forms of Religious Life. London: Routledge. Bell, C. M. (2012). 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