Final answer:
Religion is a cultural universal found across cultures with common elements such as cosmology, belief in the supernatural, rules, and rituals. It is a structured system of beliefs and practices that create social cohesion. Scholars like Émile Durkheim have contributed to the understanding of these universal elements by studying simple forms of religion.
Step-by-step explanation:
Religion is a cultural universal that exhibits certain universal elements, despite the diversity of belief systems across different cultures. The influential French sociologist Émile Durkheim focused on these elements by studying the simplest forms of religions, such as totemism among Indigenous Australian peoples. He asserts that a religion can be defined as a "unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things - beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them." This includes the components of beliefs, practices, and a social organization.
Most belief systems, despite their diverse natures, share common elements such as a cosmology, which explains the origin of the world, a belief in the supernatural, rules governing behavior to align individual actions with spiritual beliefs, and rituals that address the needs of individuals or the community while serving a religious purpose.
Anthropologists studying religion must adopt cultural relativism to avoid imposing one culture's definitions or assumptions on another. Durkheim and other scholars like Sir E.B. Tylor and Sir James Frazer had varying definitions and approaches to the study of religion, which highlight the complexity of understanding religious phenomena in human societies. Furthermore, philosophers like Plato and Benedetto Croce also provided insights into the essence of religious belief and its fundamental role in human life.