Sacred and Profane

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Sacred and profane. A distinction in human experience of the world which to Durkheim seemed to be the essence of religion, and from which he derived his definition of religion:

A religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden—beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them. The second element which thus finds a place in our definition is no less essential than the first; for by showing that the idea of religion is inseparable from that of the Church, it makes it clear that religion should be an eminently collective thing. (The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (1912; tr. 1961), 52, 62 f.)

The human inclination to organize the experienced world in terms of this distinction (between sacred and profane) was taken much further in the development of structuralism, especially by Lévi-Strauss, since it was argued that the human mind is under an innate and universal obligation to perceive binary oppositions (up/down, male/female, night/day, etc.), not just in the case of the sacred and the profane, but in general. However, these classifications are bound to leave anomalous or ambiguous cases, so that religion is better understood by attending, not only to the classification systems, but also to the ways in which the anomalous is dealt with, since this will disclose why communities find some things abhorrent and others acceptable. This methodology was applied influentially by Mary Douglas (Purity and Danger, 1966), showing that ‘dirt’ as a concept leads to pollution rules which are not primarily concerned with hygiene. The binary opposition between wholeness (holiness) and imperfection (uncleanness) underlies the biblical laws concerning holiness: to be wholly attached to God brings blessing, to be removed from God brings a curse. Creatures designated as unclean according to the food laws are those which are anomalous or on a borderline between categories (e.g. if they are not clearly domesticated or wild, or belonging to air or sea). In Implicit Meanings (1975) she argued further that pollution beliefs (understood in this way) serve a social function, because they protect society at its most vulnerable points, where ambiguity would erode or undermine social structure.

Sacred and Profane. 8 settings of medieval lyrics for unacc. vv. by Britten, Op.91, comp. 1974–5: 1. St. Godric's hymn. 2. I mon waxe wod. 3. Lenten is come. 4. The long night. 5. Yif ic of luve can. 6. Carol. 7. Ye that pasen by. 8. A death. F.p. Snape 1975.