The sacred and the profane were Durkheim's terms that he used in order to describe what he believed to be the fundamental aspects of Religion.  As Durkheim searched for universal qualities of religion, he came up with, church, ritual, and the sacred contrasted with the profane.  For Durkheim the world was divided into two categories: the sacred and the profane.  This dichotomy between the sacred and the profane was fundamental to the understanding of religion and the solidarity that it creates.  He argues that the sacred is anything that has a special importance or meaning to the group and in order to display this, people develop rituals and protective practices in oder to separate the sacred objects or symbols from the profane which is everything else. 

     Durkheim applies this theory to his work on Australian Totemism as he describes how the totems are surrounded by practices and rituals which separate the figures from profane objects and thus, through the process of separation, create the sacredness of the totems themselves.  He goes on to discuss how the totems are not as sacred as what they represent and as they represent the clan themselves, they create solidarity among the group.