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Psychology & SocietyThe Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and ReligionJames George FrazerThe Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion

The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion

James George Frazer

Psychology & SocietyEnglish
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In a sacred grove at Nemi, near Rome, there was once a strange rule: the priest of the goddess Diana could be replaced only by a runaway slave who broke a…

Catalogue details

Author
James George Frazer
Category
Psychology & Society
Language
English
Source
Project Gutenberg

About this book

In a sacred grove at Nemi, near Rome, there was once a strange rule: the priest of the goddess Diana could be replaced only by a runaway slave who broke a branch from a certain tree and then killed him. Starting from this puzzle, James Frazer gathers customs from every continent, from rain-making and taboos to the killing of divine kings and the festivals of dying and reviving gods, to argue that human thought develops from magic through religion to science.

Context and significance

Frazer (1854–1941), a Scottish scholar who did his research in Cambridge libraries rather than in the field, first published the book in two volumes in 1890, expanded it to twelve, and then made a famous one-volume abridgement in 1922. Many of its theories are now rejected, but it deeply influenced writers such as T. S. Eliot, whose notes to The Waste Land cite it.

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