Discuss Durkheim’s research on religion and society and how it influenced W. Lloyd Warner. Explain how Goffman used these scholars’ work as an influence on his own being sure to define such vocabulary as deference and presentational rituals.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Goffman’s interest in exploring the rituals that structure social life in modern societies stems in part from the influence of W. Lloyd Warner, with whom he studied while earning his graduate degree at the University of Chicago. Warner’s community studies examined the ritual practices that shape modern status systems and the inequalities they sustain. Goffman followed Warner’s lead in applying the insights and methods of anthropology to urban society; however, he largely abandoned, at least overtly, his mentor’s emphasis on stratification and turned to a Durkheimian-inspired, functionalist interpretation of the ritual practices that guide interaction. Durkheim’s classic study of tribal religions, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912/1965), that arguably had the most impact on Goffman’s unique view of social interaction. In this work, Durkheim sought to uncover the origins of religion and, in doing so, to demonstrate the inevitable presence of religion in all societies, including allegedly secular, modern ones.