Spirits in the work of Durkheim,Hertz and Mauss: Reflections on post-war Vietnam

Abstract

Scholars of the early French sociological school shared strong common intellectual interests, but they pursued these interests in both convergent and divergent perspectives. Focusing on the ideas of soul and spirit, this essay examines how Mauss and Hertz approached these ideas differently from Durkheim, leading to their distinct understandings of human solidarity and social inequality. It argues that the powerful legacies of these three formative members of the Année sociologique group become even more powerful and relevant if understood in an integrated perspective and in critical relation to one another. The discussion will be illustrated by an ethnographic study of Vietnamese culture of commemoration concerning the souls of tragic war dead.