The Religion of Culture

While I was reading Authentic Fakes, I noticed that Chidester referenced some classical Anthropologists. Last semester I took Intro to Cultural Anthropology, so these references piqued my interest. One of the anthropologists Chidester refers to is Durkheim. From what I remember, his take on religion is that it is a description of culture; that the larger force people refer to when talking about God and religion is really just a way to understand the larger force of culture. In other words, religion is just a vehicle for understanding and explaining the movement and force of culture through the world. I happen to really like this explanation. This also lends itself to Chidester's explanation of pop culture taking on a religious form in the US. If religion is just an explanation of culture moving through the world, then it is only logical that culture is the driving force behind religion. If this is so, then the cross over of religion and popular culture that Chidester describes is only an inevitable by-product of that connection. Taking this view, it is now easier to understand the classification of many things as "religious" when they have no concrete ties to any form of religion. For example, the religious experience of a football game or of a concert is not truly religious, but people use that term to try to explain and understand the emotions and feelings of "effervescence," as Durkheim calls it.
To me religion is nothing more than a way to cognize and to categorize the world and the events that surround us every day. Religion is comforting and a source of security, but in order to understand it and the way people perceive and interact with culture, you must first understand the larger force of culture in the world and in every one of us.