RITUAL, COLLECTIVE EFFERVESCENCE AND THE CATEGORIES: TOWARD A NEO-DURKHEIMIAN MODEL OF THE NATURE OF HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS, FEELING AND UNDERSTANDING

This paper explores the significance of Emile Durkheim's theory of a ritually generated social epistemology for current anthropological theorizing. Durkheim's theory of ritual, collective effervescence and the emergence of the fundamental categories of thought are discussed in the context of his last and most mature work, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912). The proto-social phenomenology that underlies much of this later thought is outlined, while some significant links between Durkheim's later writings and William James's radical empiricism and theory of emotion are also explored. The contemporary relevance of Durkheim's pioneering work is examined through a brief review of current theories in neuroscience, philosophy, and anthropology which we view to be logical extensions of Durkheim's original thesis. Durkheim's theory is then evaluated and updated in light of recent advances in phenomenological, anthropological and neuroscientific research. Drawing on insights garnered from three decades of research in biogenetic structural theory, the paper presents the initial parameters for a "cultural neurophenomenology" that sets out to establish the neurophysiological and cultural underpinnings of a modern version of Durkheim's theory.