Collective Consciousness: Uniting Primitive and Modern Societies - Essay Sample

Introduction

The theory of collective consciousness was originated by sociologist Emile Durkheim whose aim was to explain what unites individuals in a complex society. This theory propounds that there exists solidarity within both primitive and modern societies. This solidarity exists in different forms for the various societies, namely primitive and modern. Primitive societies had a simpler way of life hence easier to unite due to small populations. With such a facilitating factor, they united through mechanical solidarity since their nature was very homogenous. On the other hand, modern societies are held on Organic solidarity. Durkheim, in his proponent, views the modern society as more complex and needs a more than mechanical solidarity to maintain collective consciousness. Solidarity is based on aspects such as religion, beliefs, status, and occupation that hold people together. Further, looking into this aspect, Durkheim found a division of labor to be pivotal in calling for organic solidarity due to the nature of interactions. The society grows more complex day by day hence the need for organic solidarity. This work looks deeper into the proponents of Durkheim that seek to establish the existence of collective solidarity within the society.

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Organic Solidarity and Mechanical Solidarity

Defining the strength and nature of interactions for the society, we base them on the type of society. The primitive society had a simple nature of the small population, attachment to religious beliefs, more personal interactions, and social interaction. Such nature may have reinforced the social bond and solidify it more. The modern society comes in intricate nature with a large population, diverse culture, religions, customs, and lesser personal relationships. This has called for a more complex nature of the organic solidarity that creates a temporal bond for the interactions.

The social molecules that can be coherent in this way can act together only in the measure that they have no actions of their own as the molecules of an inorganic body...the term does not signify that it is produced by mechanical or artificial means we call it that only by analogy...(p 115)

Organic solidarity is symbolic of how modern society has solidarity that only exists with the interactions. During these interactions, the members of the community rarely establish bonds that were there in primitive societies. People don't get too personal interactions more than in primitive societies. Collective consciousness in modern societies is minimal due to their heterogeneous nature.

Religion

Religion is at the forefront of maintaining collective consciousness in both the modern and the primitive societies. Religion maintains its role through the two aspects of rites and beliefs. Beliefs are the opinions that come with a representation. Rites are actions that are dictated by religion. Religion maintains the collective consciousness intact.

They are not merely received individually by all members of this group; they are something belonging to the group, and they make unity. The individuals who compose it feel united to each other by the simple fact that they have a common faith (p 151)

Durkheim placed religion on a larger scale in influencing collective consciousness amongst people in any society. His views are that society tends to unite more when they have a common faith in their sacred world. Such people often have shared ideas and practices when their faith is in action. Religion goes up to the national scale with examples of Christianity, Roman Catholic hence mass solidarity.

Sometimes the collective solidarity may lack binding, but its ideology is diffused to the masses who coherently adhere to it. The case of magic is the perfect example of this. There is no church of magic, yet there are millions who believe in it. The notion of them believing in magic creates a consciousness without lasting bonds. The clientele of magic lacks social relations but have a collective consciousness about faith in magic.

Division of Labor

In modern society, the economy has been at the forefront of maintaining the functionality of society in general. Any relation revolves around the economic factors that affect it. The division of labor led to an unfolding of the new norm with contemporary society. Economic hardships prompted for the specialization of one's skills to earn a living. With that being the case, people at their workstations formed new social bonds based on the co-worker relation. Such bonds, in turn, brought in the aspect of social solidarity for the workers.

But only does the division of labor present the character by which we have defined morality; it more and more tends to become the essential condition for social solidarity. (p 117)

From Durkheim's argument, he views society from an economic perspective that has seen a significant decline in similarities between primitive and modern societies. His analysis looks at the increased number of suicides in the modern society as opposed to traditional society. The differences between the two societies are not only related to the suicide rate but also in the number of divorces and separations in modern society. Divorces and separations have increased hastily with the onset of the division of labor and added economic hardships.

Durkheim coined the rate of suicide and separation in the industrial society to two main characteristics of contemporary society. He used the term egoism to describe a lack of interactions in modern societies as opposed to the primitive ones. Secondly, he used the term anomie to describe a state of lacking moral regulation. Arguing that the two terms are chronic, Durkheim termed them as the significant causes of suicide in the community and caused the breakage of social solidarity. Such states in society mean s no collective consciousness as there are weaker ties amongst the individual hence the presence of the chronic illnesses for social solidarity.

Anomie and Egoism

Anomie, as used by Durkheim, refers to the lack of regulation. In primitive societies, there were so many regulations ranging from the customs that people have been used to previously. In the less simple societies, authority was much defined in terms of morality. Such a view has slowly been outcasted with the uptake of modernity. Regulations have seen consequences in shaping the collective consciousness and how it has manifested.

According to accepted ideas, for example, a certain way of living is considered the upper limit to which a workman may aspire in his efforts to improve his existence, and there is another limit below which he is not willingly permitted to fall unless he has seriously (p 96)

Such coercion from society has seen the society headed for the liberal state. Having the option to choose from and what kind of life one prefers is more of a modern-day affair. In the past, the life of an individual was more dependent on the approval of the society. The individual's ambition to their dream was given little emphasis than in the modern world.

Egoism on the other hand has rendered many handicapped to the social life. The modern society has given room for a solitary life despite the ever-increasing vast population. Egoism has changed the interaction patterns in contemporary societies as opposed to the primitive ones. The interactions in modern societies have been reduced to formal settings and only for the people who share a common thing. Interactions have been more casual as opposed to the primitive societies where they were more bonded. Egoism has altered the functioning of society, specifically on the nature of the interactions.

Conclusion

Collective consciousness, as seen, manifests well in any form of interactions as long as there is coherence amongst the society members. This consciousness has been brought by several factors that keep the society running both in the past and present. Primitive societies had a higher level of collective consciousness than modern societies. Social bonds in primitive societies were stronger due to facilitating factors such as the simple nature of the societies. Solidarity, as seen, is simpler for the primitive societies who use religion as the underlying factor for mechanical solidarity. With the succession of the primitive society to modern society, the division of labor has seen the complexity of the society demand for the organic solidarity that is more intricate. With contemporary society, other complexity of the collective consciousness, namely anomie, and egoism, have made it more demanding to have organic solidarity. Collective consciousness is vast and integrated into the basic level of society and ingrained in every individual's consciousness.