Emile Durkheim, in his Elementary Forms of Religious Life, proposes a new sociology to attain a deeper understanding about humanity. He makes the assumption that all societies are intrinsically the same and runs with it. Using the notion that the Australian Aboriginal society is like that of the West, except that it is much more simple, Durkheim believes that he can deduce universal truths from his observations of Aboriginal social interaction. The truth Durkheim seeks is not present in the religion and the society itself, but in the basic social interrelations that religion mystifies. Religion itself is only a symbol of the overwhelming power society has over us all, according to Durkheim. As a scientific observer, Durkheim holds that he can see beyond the symbols of Aboriginal religion, and reach the truth. While his argument may not as thorough and scientific as Durkheim believes it is, it still presents a powerful insight into the human condition.
             Forms, when it was first published, was scandalous because of the assumption that the Aboriginal religion and Western religion have the same basis. Durkheim believes that there is a very strong cross-cultural truth in all religions. His reasoning brings him to then believe that an analysis of the most so-called primitive religion, of a society "the simplicity of whose organization is nowhere exceeded," (Durkheim, 1) will allow him great insight into human beings in general. Durkheim thinks he finds this simplicity in the Aboriginals.
             This simplicity poses another interesting twist, when it comes to the definition of religion. Durkheim's Western audience would mostly believe that the term religion presupposes the existence of deities, whereas the Aboriginals do not worship deities. Durkheim gets around this specification by further generalizing religion. He posits that religion instead "presupposes a classification of the real or ideal things ... into two classes...