Profanum

Profanum is the Latin word for 'profane'. The distinction between the sacred and the profane was considered by Émile Durkheim to be central to the social reality of human religion. Profanum is the Latin word for 'profane'. The distinction between the sacred and the profane was considered by Émile Durkheim to be central to the social reality of human religion. The profane world consists of all that we can know through our senses; it is the natural world of everyday life that we experience as either comprehensible or at least ultimately knowable — the Lebenswelt or lifeworld. In contrast, the sacred, or sacrum in Latin, encompasses all that exists beyond the everyday, natural world that we experience with our senses. As such, the sacred or numinous can inspire feelings of awe, because it is regarded as ultimately unknowable and beyond limited human abilities to perceive and comprehend. Durkheim pointed out however that there are degrees of sacredness, so that an amulet for example may be sacred yet little respected. Rites of passage represent movements from one state — the profane – to the other, the sacred; or back again to the profanum.