How societies can maintain social intergration after the traditional bonds of family and church have been replaced by modern economic relations. French writer Emile Durkheim believed that a society exerted powerful force on individuals, an individuals norms, beliefs and values which make up collective consciousness or simply put; a shared way of understanding and behaving in the world. This collective consciousness binds people together thereby creating social intergration and is crucial in explaining the existence of society. At the same time, the collective consciousness is emitted by humans through their actions. Society is a social product created by individuals but which exerts back a social force on those same individuals. Collective consciousness helps humans understand that we all are humans and not some being animals.