The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion

James George Frazer

Oxford University Press, 1998 - Fiction - 858 pages

A classic study of the beliefs and institutions of mankind, and the progress through magic and religion to scientific thought, The Golden Bough has a unique status in modern anthropology and literature. First published in 1890, The Golden Bough was eventually issued in a twelve-volume edition (1906-15) which was abridged in 1922 by the author and his wife. That abridgement has never been reconsidered for a modern audience. In it some of the more controversial passages were dropped, including Frazer's daring speculations on the Crucifixion of Christ. For the first time this one-volume edition restores Frazer's bolder theories and sets them within the framework of a valuable introduction and notes. A seminal work of modern anthropolgy, The Golden Bough also influenced many twentieth-century writers, including D H Lawrence, T S Eliot, and Wyndham Lewis. Its discussion of magical types, the sacrificial killing of kings, the dying god, and the scapegoat is given fresh pertinence in this new edition.

Contents

• Acknowledgements: vii
• Introduction: ix
• Note on the Text: xl
• Select Bibliography: xliv
• A Chronology of Sir James George Frazer: xlvii
• THE KING OF THE WOOD: 7
• The King of the Wood: 9
• Priestly Kings: 22
• Magic and Religion: 26
• Human Gods: 60
• Departmental Kings of Nature: 77
• The Worship of Trees: 82
• The Sacred Marriage: 98
• The Kings of Rome: 114
• The Succession to the Kingdom: 122
• The Burden of Royalty: 134
• The Perils of the Soul: 153
• Taboos: 166
• KILLING THE: 221
• The Mortality of the Gods: 223
• The Killing of the Divine King: 228
• Temporary Kings: 254
• Sacrifice of the Kings Son: 261
• The Killing of the TreeSpirit: 273
• Adonis: 300
• Sacred Prostitution: 320
• The Ritual of Adonis: 331
• Attis: 346
• The Hanged God: 353
• Osiris: 366
• Feasts of All Souls: 375
• Isis: 387
• Motherkin and Mother Goddesses: 390
• Dionysus: 396
• Demeter and Persephone: 405
• Womans Part in Primitive Agriculture: 411
• The CornMother and CornMaiden: 417
• Lityerses: 435
• The CornSpirit as an Animal: 455
• Eating the God: 498
• The Flesh Diet: 511
• Killing the Divine Animal: 521
• THE SCAPEGOAT: 555
• The Transference of Evil: 557
• Ancient Scapegoats: 591
• Killing the God in Mexico: 607
• The Saturnalia: 630
• The Crucifixion of Christ: 666
• THE GOLDEN BOUGH: 677
• Between Heaven and Earth: 679
• The Seclusion of Girls: 686
• Balders Fires: 706
• The External Soul: 750
• Death and Resurrection: 785
• The Golden Bough: 794
• Explanatory Notes: 809
• Index: 843

About the author

James George Frazer was a British social anthropologist, folklorist, and classical scholar who taught for most of his life at Trinity College, Cambridge. Greatly influenced by Edward Burnett Tylor's Primitive Culture, published in 1871, he wrote The Golden Bough (1890), a massive reconstruction of the whole of human thought and custom through the successive stages of magic, religion, and science.The Golden Bough is regarded by many today as a much-loved but antiquated relic, but, by making anthropological data and knowledge academically respectable, Frazer made modern comparative anthropology possible.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion; Oxford world's classics; World's classics
• Author: James George Frazer
• Editor: Robert Fraser
• Contributor: Robert Fraser
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1998
• ISBN: 0192835416, 9780192835413
• Length: 858 pages
• Subjects: Body, Mind & Spirit / Magick Studies; Fiction / Classics; RELIGION / Comparative Religion; Religion / General; Social Science / Folklore & Mythology