Books with author Sir James Frazer

The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by Sir James George Frazer. The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion (retitled The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion in its second edition) is a wide-ranging, comparative study of mythology and religion, written by the Scottish anthropologist Sir James George Frazer. The Golden Bough was first published in two volumes in 1890; in three volumes in 1900; and in twelve volumes in the third edition, published 1906–15. THE PRIMARY aim of this book is to explain the remarkable rule which regulated the succession to the priesthood of Diana at Aricia. When I first set myself to solve the problem more than thirty years ago, I thought that the solution could be propounded very briefly, but I soon found that to render it probable or even intelligible it was necessary to discuss certain more general questions, some of which had hardly been broached before. In successive editions the discussion of these and kindred topics has occupied more and more space, the enquiry has branched out in more and more directions, until the two volumes of the original work have expanded into twelve. Meantime a wish has often been expressed that the book should be issued in a more compendious form. This abridgment is an attempt to meet the wish and thereby to bring the work within the range of a wider circle of readers. While the bulk of the book has been greatly reduced, I have endeavoured to retain its leading principles, together with an amount of evidence sufficient to illustrate them clearly. The language of the original has also for the most part been preserved, though here and there the exposition has been somewhat condensed. In order to keep as much of the text as possible I have sacrificed all the notes, and with them all exact references to my authorities. Readers who desire to ascertain the source of any particular statement must therefore consult the larger work, which is fully documented and provided with a complete bibliography.

The subject of these lectures is a branch of natural theology. By natural theology I understand that reasoned knowledge of a God or gods which man may be supposed, whether rightly or wrongly, capable of attaining to by the exercise of his natural faculties alone. Thus defined, the subject may be treated in at least three different ways, namely, dogmatically, philosophically, and historically. We may simply state the dogmas of natural theology which appear to us to be true: that is the dogmatic method. Or, secondly, we may examine the validity of the grounds on which these dogmas have been or may be maintained: that is the philosophic method.

A monumental study of comparative folklore and religion, THE GOLDEN BOUGH was originally published in two volumes in 1890, grew to 12 volumes for the third edition in 1915, then abridged by the author into this one-volume edition in 1922. Drawing on the beliefs and customs of ancient European civilizations and primitive cultures throughout the world, James Frazer's work continues to be an important reference.

The Golden Bough was originally published in two volumes in 1890. The work was then substantially revised and expanded into twelve volumes, with the final volumes issued in 1915. It is truly a dazzling work of scholarship and learning. After reading this seminal work, one might wonder whether there were any indigenous societies past and present that Sir James did not investigate and cast light on. His mastery of this immense storehouse of ethnological data acted as a much needed corrective to the Eurocentric perspective that was the dominant mode of thinking of his time. Using as its starting point the strange career of the priest of the grove of Nemi, sacred to Diana, who succeeded to his position by the murder of his predecessor and who would in turn be murdered by his successor, The Golden Bough explores myth, magic and ritual the world over, showing how the recurrent themes of the dying and resurrected god permeate the mythic landscape and serve as a paradigmatic constituent of the pre-scientific world view. The Golden Bough was immensely influential in the developing fields of anthropology and ethnology. Malinowski, Radcliffe-Brown and the Cambridge School all acknowledged their great debt to Frazer. But the work also made its influence felt in wider cultural contexts. It opened pathways in the study of mythology that would be trod upon by Jung, Joseph Campbell, Robert Graves and Levi-Strauss and fired the poetic imaginations of Eliot in The Wasteland, Yeats in Sailing to Byzantium as well as their contemporaries Pound, Lawrence and Auden. The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein wrote so much about it that his commentaries were collected and published in book form. Elegantly written, permeated with wise discernment and a delicate sense of irony, The Golden Bough is entirely modern in its outlook. It is a book to be savored, enjoyed and returned to.

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 was first published in two volumes in 1890; the third edition, published 1906-15, comprised twelve volumes. It was aimed at a broad literate audience raised on tales as told in such publications as Thomas Bulfinch's Age of Fable. It offered a modernist approach to discussing religion, treating it dispassionately as a cultural phenomenon rather than from a theological perspective.Some of the work, especially descriptions of magic, are still held as valid today. His speculation about dying god themes and the Year King have fallen into discredit, and his work on totems has been superseded. Although the worth of its contribution to anthropology will be newly evaluated by each generation, its impact on contemporary European literature was substantial. (Quote from wikipedia.org)About the AuthorSir James George Frazer (1854 - 1941)Sir James George Frazer (January 1, 1854, Glasgow, Scotland - May 7, 1941), was a Scottish social anthropologist influential in the early stages of the modern studies of mythology and comparative religion.His most famous work, The Golden Bough (1890), documents and details similar magical and religious beliefs across the globe. Frazer posited that human belief progressed through three stages: primitive magic, replaced by religion, in turn replaced by science.He studied at the University of Glasgow and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated with honors in Classics (his dissertation would be published years later as The Growth of Plato's Ideal Theory) and remained a Classics Fellow all his life. He went on from Tri