In the politically organized, self-administering countryside, under the cloak of a nominal adherence to an exclusive unitarianism, there is in fact a Durkheimian religion which works by providing social punctuation in space and time. The sacred is incarnate, with a local habitation and a name. It helps to define groups, define their status, define their boundaries: it reinforces their cohesion.

Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking…, loc. 2005