The emergence of performance studies in the last three decades has been accompanied by an increasing dissatisfaction with the functional interpretation of ritual, and in this context Émile Durkheim’s work on ritual and religion has been the target of much criticism. The paper argues that a closer consideration of Durkheim’s interpretation of commemorative rites could be incorporated effectively into performance theory, as one of its neglected sources. The paper reviews current analytic approaches to ritual theory, and then analyses Durkheim’s argument with regards to two themes: the social organization of time and memory, and the reenactment of the past as a source of aesthetic life.
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