The
Golden Bough
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James Frazier
(1854 - 1941)
The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion is a wide-ranging comparative
study of mythology and religion, written by Scottish anthropologist Sir James
George Frazer (1854–1941). It offered a modernist approach, discussing
religion dispassionately as a cultural phenomenon, rather than from a
theological perspective. Although most of its theories have subsequently been
exploded (the most famous one being that of the relationship between magic,
religion and science), its impact on contemporaneous European literature was
substantial.
The Golden Bough attempts to define the shared elements of religious belief,
ranging from ancient belief systems to relatively modern religions such as
Christianity. Its thesis is that old religions were fertility cults that centered
around the worship of, and periodic sacrifice of, a
sacred king. This king was the incarnation of a dying and reviving god, a
solar deity who underwent a mystic marriage to a goddess of the earth, who
died at the harvest, and was reincarnated in the spring. Frazer claims that
this legend is central to almost all of the world’s mythologies,
and he offers a plethora of colorful examples from all over the world.
Moreover, his book is written in an admirable style, seldom excelled by his
more modern colleagues.
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