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J. M. W. Turner's painting of the Golden Bough incident in the Aeneid
J. M. W. Turner's painting of the Golden Bough incident in the Aeneid

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). Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 1775 &ndash 19 December 1851 was an English Romantic landscape painter, Watercolourist and For the group of nine Ancient Egyptian deities see Ennead. The Aeneid (əˈniːɪd in The word mythology (from the Greek grc μυθολογία mythología, meaning "a story-telling a legendary lore" A religion is a set of Tenets and practices often centered upon specific Supernatural and moral claims about Reality, the Cosmos Year 1854 ( MDCCCLIV) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common year Year 1941 ( MCMXLI) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (the link will display 1941 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. It was first published in two volumes in 1890; the third edition, published 1906–15, comprised twelve volumes. Year 1890 ( MDCCCXC) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common It was aimed at a broad literate audience raised on tales as told in such publications as Thomas Bulfinch's Age of Fable. Thomas Bulfinch ( July 15 1796 - May 27, 1867) was an American writer born in Newton Massachusetts. It offered a modernist approach to discussing religion, treating it dispassionately [1] as a cultural phenomenon rather than from a theological perspective. Modernism describes an array of Cultural movements rooted in the changes in Western society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century

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 His speculation about dying god themes and the Year King have fallen into discredit, and his work on totems has been superseded [2]. A totem is any supposed entity that watches over or assists a group of people such as a family Clan or tribe ( Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary and Webster's Although the worth of its contribution to anthropology will be newly evaluated by each generation, its impact on contemporary European literature was substantial. Anthropology (/ˌænθɹəˈpɒlədʒi/ from Greek grc ἄνθρωπος anthrōpos, "human" -λογία -logia) is the study of

Contents

Subject matter

The Golden Bough attempts to define the shared elements of religious belief, ranging from ancient belief systems to relatively modern religions such as Christianity. Christianity ( Greek Χριστιανισμός from the word Xριστός ( Christ)is a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings Its thesis is that old religions were fertility cults that revolved around the worship of, and periodic sacrifice of, a sacred king. Fertility rites are religious Rituals that reenact either actually or symbolically sexual acts and/or reproductive processes This article refers to the religious act For the album by Michael W Sacrifice (from a Middle English verb meaning "to make sacred" from Old French, from Latin sacrificium: sacr, "sacred" For the office under ancient Rome see Rex Sacrorum. In many historical societies the office of kingship carries a Sacral meaning that is it is 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. The category life-death-rebirth deity also known as a "dying-and-rising" or "Resurrection" Deity is a convenient means of classifying the many divinities "Sun god" redirects here For the Ramsey Lewis album see Sun Goddess (album. NOTICE TO WOULD-BE ROMEOS ************** A goddess is a Female Deity. Many Cultures have goddesses Often deities are part of a polytheistic system that includes several deities Frazer claims that this legend is central to almost all of the world's mythologies. The germ for Frazer's thesis was the pre-Roman priest-king at the fane of Nemi, who was ritually murdered by his successor:

"When I first put pen to paper to write The Golden Bough I had no conception of the magnitude of the voyage on which I was embarking; I thought only to explain a single rule of an ancient Italian priesthood. For the Norwegian comic strip see Nemi (comic strip. Nemi is a town and Comune in the Province of " (Aftermath p vi)

The book's title was taken from an incident in the Aeneid, illustrated by the British artist Joseph Mallord William Turner: Aeneas and the Sibyl present the golden bough to the gatekeeper of Hades in order to gain admission. For the group of nine Ancient Egyptian deities see Ennead. The Aeneid (əˈniːɪd in Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 1775 &ndash 19 December 1851 was an English Romantic landscape painter, Watercolourist and This article is about the Roman hero For other uses see Aeneas (disambiguation. The word sibyl probably comes (via Latin) from the Greek word sibylla, meaning Prophetess (Other schools of thought suggest that the word Hades (from Greek, Hadēs, originally, Haidēs or, Aidēs, probably from Indo-European *n̥-wid- 'unseen' refers both to the ancient

Reception

The book scandalized the British public upon its first publication, because it included the Christian story of Jesus in its comparative study, thus inviting an agnostic reading of the Lamb of God as a relic of a pagan religion. Christianity ( Greek Χριστιανισμός from the word Xριστός ( Christ)is a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings Jesus of Nazareth (7–2 BC / BCE —26–36 AD / CE) Lamb of God ( Latin: Agnus Dei) is one of the titles given to Jesus in the New Testament and consequently in the Christian Frazer removed his analysis of the Crucifixion to a speculative appendix for the third edition, and it was entirely missing from the single-volume abridged edition. Crucifixion (from Latin crucifixio, noun of process crucifixio, from perfect passive participle crucifixus, fixed to a cross from

Parts of the book, most notably its discussion of the symbolism of magic and its elucidation of the concept of sympathetic magic, remain accepted by scholars today. "Symbolic" redirects here For other uses see Symbolism (disambiguation and Symbolic (disambiguation. Magic, sometimes known as sorcery, is a Conceptual system that asserts human ability to control the natural world (including events objects people and Sympathetic magic, also known as imitative magic, is a type of magic based on imitation or correspondence The larger theme of dying and reviving gods has not fared as well in the world of anthropology and comparative religion; most contemporary anthropologists have concluded that Frazer overinterpreted his evidence to fit it into his system [3]. Anthropology (/ˌænθɹəˈpɒlədʒi/ from Greek grc ἄνθρωπος anthrōpos, "human" -λογία -logia) is the study of Comparative religion is a field of Religious study that analyzes the similarities and differences of themes myths rituals and concepts among the world's religions .

Despite whatever controversy the work may have generated, and its critical reception amongst other scholars, The Golden Bough had a tremendous impact on the literature of the period. Robert Graves adapted Frazer's concept of the dying king who is sacrificed for the good of the kingdom to the romantic idea of the poet's necessary suffering for the sake of his Muse-Goddess in his Frazer-esque book on poetry, rituals and myths, The White Goddess, published in 1948. Robert Graves (24 July 1895 &ndash 7 December 1985 was an English Poet, Translator and Novelist. The White Goddess is a book-length essay upon the nature of poetic myth-making by author and poet Robert Graves. William Butler Yeats makes reference to it in his poem, "Sailing to Byzantium. " Sailing to Byzantium " is a poem by William Butler Yeats, first published in the 1928 collection The Tower. " H. P. Lovecraft mentions the book in his short story "The Call of Cthulhu. Howard Phillips Lovecraft ( August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) was an American author of horror, fantasy For the 2005 film see The Call of Cthulhu (film. " The Call of Cthulhu " is one of H " T. S. Eliot acknowledged indebtedness to Frazer in his first note to his poem The Waste Land. Thomas Stearns Eliot, OM (September 26 1888 – January 4 1965 was a poet Dramatist, and Literary critic. The Waste Land ( 1922) is a highly influential 434-line modernist poem by T William Carlos Williams references it as well in Book Two, part two, of his extended poem in five books, Paterson. William Carlos Williams ( 17 September 1883 &ndash 4 March 1963) was an American poet closely associated with modernism James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, D. H. Lawrence, Aleister Crowley, Ezra Pound, Mary Renault, Joseph Campbell, Naomi Mitchison (in her The Corn King and the Spring Queen) and Camille Paglia are but a few authors deeply influenced by The Golden Bough. James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 &ndash 13 January 1941 was an Irish expatriate writer widely considered to be one of the most influential writers of the Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21 1899 — July 2 1961 was an American novelist short-story writer, and Journalist. David Herbert Richards Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930 was an English writer of the 20th century whose prolific and diverse output included Novels short Aleister Crowley, born Edward Alexander Crowley (ˈkroʊli (12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947 was a British Occultist Writer, mountaineer Ezra Weston Loomis Pound ( Hailey, Idaho Territory, United States October 30 1885 – Venice, Italy November 1 1972 was an American Expatriate Mary Renault (pronounced Ren-olt ( 4 September 1905 – 13 December 1983) born Mary Challans, was an English Writer Joseph John Campbell ( March 26, 1904 – October 30, 1987) was an American Mythology Professor, Writer Naomi May Margaret Mitchison CBE (née Haldane 1 November 1897 Edinburgh – 11 January 1999 at Carradale) was a Scottish Novelist Camille Anna Paglia (born 2 April 1947 in Endicott New York) is an American Author, Teacher, Feminist and Social critic Its literary impact has given it continued life even as its direct influence in anthropology has waned.

Critical analysis of The Golden Bough

The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein returned time and again to The Golden Bough, often enough that his commentaries have been compiled as Remarks on Frazer's Golden Bough, edited by Rush Rhees, originally published in 1967, with the English edition following in 1971. [4] He writes, "Frazer is much more savage than most of these savages. "[5]

Some modern criticism sets Frazer in the broader context of the history of ideas, for example, Robert Ackerman in his The Myth and Ritual School: J. The history of ideas is a field of Research in History that deals with the expression preservation and change of human Ideas over time G. Frazer and the Cambridge Ritualists. The myth and ritual school includes scholars Jane Harrison, Gilbert Murray, F. M. Cornford, and A.B. Cook, who were connecting the new discipline of myth theory and anthropology with traditional literary classics at the end of the 19th century. The Cambridge Ritualists were a recognised group of Classical scholars mostly in Cambridge, England including Jane Ellen Harrison, Gilbert Murray Jane Ellen Harrison ( September 9, 1850 &ndash April 5, 1928) was a ground-breaking British classical scholar linguist George Gilbert Aimé Murray ( January 2, 1866 &ndash May 20 1957) was a British classical scholar and Public intellectual Francis Macdonald Cornford ( 27 February 1874 &ndash 3 January 1943) was an English classical scholar and Poet Arthur Bernard Cook (1868-1952 was a British Classical scholar, known for work in Archaeology and the History of religions. This school was an important influence on a great deal of Modernist literature. Modernism describes an array of Cultural movements rooted in the changes in Western society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century

Quotations

"If the test of truth lay in a show of hands or a counting of heads, the system of magic might appeal, with far more reason than the Catholic Church, to the proud motto, Quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus ["Always, everywhere, and by all"], as the sure and certain credential of its own infallibility. " (Chapter 4, "Magic and Religion". )

"The danger, however, is not less real because it is imaginary; imagination acts upon man as really as does gravitation, and may kill him as certainly as a dose of prussic acid. Hydrogen cyanide is a Chemical compound with Chemical formula HCN " (Chapter 21, "Tabooed Things". )

References in popular culture

See also

Bibliography

Editions of The Golden Bough

Secondary texts

References

  1. ^ Chapter 4. , Magic and Religion: 'The dispassionate observer, whose studies have led him to plumb its depths, can hardly regard it otherwise than as a standing menace to civilisation. '
  2. ^ Levi-Strauss, Claude; Rodney Needham (1971). Claude Lévi-Strauss (klod levi stʁos born 28 November 1908 is a French Anthropologist. Year 1971 ( MCMLXXI) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the 1971 Gregorian calendar. Totemism. A totem is any supposed entity that watches over or assists a group of people such as a family Clan or tribe ( Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary and Webster's Beacon Press. ISBN 10080704671X.  
  3. ^ Levi-Strauss, Claude; Rodney Needham (1971). Claude Lévi-Strauss (klod levi stʁos born 28 November 1908 is a French Anthropologist. Year 1971 ( MCMLXXI) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the 1971 Gregorian calendar. Totemism. A totem is any supposed entity that watches over or assists a group of people such as a family Clan or tribe ( Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary and Webster's Beacon Press. ISBN 10080704671X.  
  4. ^ http://www.phil.uni-passau.de/dlwg/ws04/21-2-95.txt
  5. ^ Wittgenstein, Ludwig, Remarks on Frazer's Golden Bough, p. 131

External links

Text copies of the 1922 edition:

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