The Golden Bough

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Before Joseph Campbell became the world s most famous practitioner of comparative mythology, there was Sir James George Frazer The Golden Bough was originally published in two volumes in 1890, but Frazer became so enad of his topic that over the next few decades he expanded the work sixfold, then in 1922 cut it all down to a single thick edition suitable for mass distribution The thesis on the origins of magic and religion that it elaborates will be long and laborious, Frazer warns readers, but may possess something of the charm of a voyage of discovery, in which we shall visit many strange lands, with strange foreign peoples, and still stranger customs Chief among those customs at least as the book is remembered in the popular imagination is the sacrificial killing of god kings to ensure bountiful harvests, which Frazer traces through several cultures, including in his elaborations the myths of Adonis, Osiris, and Balder. While highly influential in its day, The Golden Bough has come under harsh critical scrutiny in subsequent decades, with many of its descriptions of regional folklore and legends deemed less than reliable Further, much of its tone is rooted in a philosophy of social Darwinism sheer cultural imperialism, really that finds its most explicit form in Frazer s rhetorical question If in the most backward state of human society now known to us we find magic thus conspicuously present and religion conspicuously absent, may we not reasonably conjecture that the civilised races of the world have also at some period of their history passed through a similar intellectual phase The truly civilized races, he goes on to say later, though not particularly loudly, are the ones whose minds evolve beyond religious belief to embrace the rational structures of scientific thought Frazer was much too genteel to state plainly that primitive races believe in magic because they are too stupid and backwards to know any better instead he remarks that a savage hardly conceives the distinction commonly drawn by advanced peoples between the natural and the supernatural And he certainly was not about to make explicit the logical extension of his theories that Christian legend, dogma, and ritual to quote Robert Graves s summation of Frazer in The White Goddess are the refinement of a great body of primitive and barbarous beliefs Whatever modern readers have come to think of the book, however, its historical significance and the eloquence with which Frazer attempts to develop what one might call a unifying theory of anthropology cannot be deniedRon Hogan New Download The Golden Bough Author James George Frazer For Kindle ePUB or eBook – kino-fada.fr I read an abridged version of this some years ago that I picked up in a bookshop for a pound the output of a cheap publisher It was a slow and awkward read, possibly because of the abridgement, but the original was long and appeared in numerous editions each of which tended to getelaborate during Frazer s lifetime.The opening echoes Gibbon s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, the British scholar in Italy looks over the landscape and allows a vision of the past, the product of their c I read an abridged version of this some years ago that I picked up in a bookshop for a pound the output of a cheap p...69 69 Influential without bound and ere breaking of ground, this is undeniably a major modern classic that reshaped its entire field Of course, most of Frazier s theses have been broadly discredited, but it s not like you re studying comparative mythology to build bridges with it although it s been proposed that unsold copies of Joseph Campbell, shredded to a fine mist, would provide high quality industrial weathering and cheap insulation suitable for the Third World.That having been said, this boo Influential without bound and ere breaking of ground, this is undeniably a major modern classic that reshaped its entire field Of course, most of Frazier s theses have been broadly discredited, but it s not like you re studying comparative mythology to build bridges with it although it s been proposed that unsold copies of Joseph Campbell, shredded to a fine mist, would provide high quality industrial weathering and cheap insulation suitable for the Third World.That having been said, this book is incredibly fucking long Longer than you think, and then twice as long again It was truly an ordeal to complete if you ve not the copious free time of an American high school student, you re probably better off scanning Harry Potter for the hidden Golden Dawn fertility rite references and mumbling lies when this book comes up at parties.Practice with papa dan...Discovering The Golden Bough, and then Graves The White Goddess which owes a critically huge debt to the Golden Bough , was a life changing time for me that recast the stories I had vacuumed up at that age, from Greek myths to Kipling, as about somethingthan their contents or even the authors intent It was first published over 100 years ago still, nothing can get a boy into that modernist, meta meta meta perspective on society like The Golden Bough Of course it s only fair that we Discovering The Golden Bough, and then Graves The White Goddess which owes a critically huge debt to the Golden Bough , w...This is such an important work If you take it from the perspective of what it is, an anthology of rituals and belief systems found in religious and non religious cultures across the globe As some other readers have pointed out it is not linear, it is also not well coordinated in way of connecting points and making laying out statements about those points But what it is absolutely superb and unbeatable in, is its exhaustive amount of information I did read the full version, and the sheer amou This is such an important work If you take it from the perspective of what it is, an anthology of rituals and belief systems found in religious and non religious cultures across the globe As some other readers have pointed out it is not linear, it is also not well coordinated in way of connecting points and making laying out statements about those points But what it is absolutely superb and unbeatable in, is its exhaustive amount of information I did read the full version, and the sheer amount of stories and references and ideas that are brought about in this book is so mind blowing The thing that makes it so worth reading is just how different this information is from what is generally given in this category He really just hammers out example after example from so many different cultures with so many different ideas that you can t help but make connections in your o...One simply cannot, in my opinion, understand anything about the history and origins of religion and of society for the primitive social unit, the family, is primarily a religious unit without a thorough mastery of this book.In this context, a study of de Fustel Coulanges is also essentialThe Golden Bough is no doubt an exercise in patience To be clear, I have not finished this book, and will not for many years This book takes time to digest and fully understand, but once that time is taken to contemplate it, literally everything that can be seen in the world opens up to the insights that are provided Expecting to read this book once, without careful pause and effort, is akin to attempting to understand the enlightenment of the ages in an afternoon I can see how many parts of The Golden Bough is no doubt an exercise in patience To be clear, I have not finished this book, and will not for many years This book takes time to digest and fully understand, but once that time is taken to contemplate it, literally everything that can be seen in the world opens up to the insights that are provided Expecting to read this book once, without careful pause and effort, is akin to attempting to understand the enlighte....I read this, like many people, because I know how influential it was I studied English in college, and this book always kept cropping up So I thought to myself, maybe if I read this, I ll have a greater understanding of Modernist writers RightHow to describe this 850 pages of poorly argued drivel The only part worth reading is the section on sympathetic magic That part at least actually seems to be going somewhere and actually makes sense It s an interesting and intelligent way of thin I read this, like many people, because I know how influential it was I studied English in college, and this book always kept cropping up So I thought to myself, maybe if I read this, I ll have a greater understanding of Modernist writers RightHow to describe this 850 pages of poorly argued drivel The only part worth reading is the section on sympathetic magic That part at least actually seems to be going somewhere and actually makes sense It s an interesting and intelligent way of thinking about rituals throughout the world and throughout the centuries This study , however, soon dissolves into an endless list of examples that are both mind numbing and unnecessary Any semblance of an argument or point soon becomes lost in the pages and pages of almost useless descriptions of every single ritual Frazer has ever read about I can t believe that there is a 12 volume version of this floating around somewhere I would rather gouge my eyes out with spoons.There...

The Golden Bough
  • English
  • 02 June 2018
  • Paperback
  • 880 pages
  • 0684826305
  • James George Frazer
  • The Golden Bough