Durkheim, Religion, and the Postcolonial Critique of Sociology's Eurocentrism.

This article critically examines Émile Durkheim’s sociological Eurocentrism through the lens of postcolonial theory, focusing particularly on his approach to religion. While postcolonial critiques broadly denounce the Eurocentric, primitivist, and Orientalist biases in classical sociology’s foundational figures—including Marx, Weber, and Durkheim—assessments of Durkheim’s legacy are ambivalent and sometimes contradictory. Durkheim’s non-theistic, ritual-centered sociology of religion, developed within the socio-political context of the French Third Republic, offers conceptual tools for understanding how collective rituals produce social identities, moral consensus, and solidarity beyond simplistic secular/religious binaries. Although his work contains Eurocentric assumptions and limited engagement with colonial violence, it also challenges reductive Western portrayals of non-Western societies and provides a framework relevant to analyzing modern interethnic conflicts, racism, and postcolonial struggles. The article concludes that despite its limitations, Durkheim’s sociology remains a valuable resource for contemporary sociological inquiry attentive to power, identity, and cultural diversity.