Sociology / Unit 8 Soc 1321 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Sacred and Profane
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The idea
Durkheim held that religion happens when a society separates the sacred, treated as extraordinary and set apart, from the profane, or ordinary life.
In practice
A piece of cloth becomes a sacred flag when raised at a ceremony, and ordinary fabric once folded into a drawer.
Where people slip
The sacred/profane line is drawn by a society's practice, not by any physical property of the object itself.
Your place on the trail
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