James George Frazer

• 1. A Scottish Boy And A Cambridge Fellowship

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  James George Frazer entered the world on the 1st of January 1854 in Glasgow, Scotland. His father Daniel F. Frazer worked as a chemist while his mother Katherine Brown managed their household. The young boy attended Springfield Academy and Larchfield Academy in Helensburgh before moving to the University of Glasgow. He later transferred to Trinity College, Cambridge where he graduated with honours in classics. His dissertation eventually appeared years later under the title The Growth of Plato's Ideal Theory. Frazer remained a Classics Fellow at Trinity for almost his entire life except for one year spent at the University of Liverpool between 1907 and 1908. Four times elected to Trinity's Title Alpha Fellowship he held this position until his death. In 1914 he received knighthood which elevated him to Sir James George Frazer. A public lectureship in social anthropology was established across four universities including Oxford and Cambridge in 1921 to honour his contributions. By 1930 his eyesight had deteriorated so severely that he could barely see anything. He died on the 7th of May 1941 in Cambridge England along with his wife Lilly within hours of each other. They lie buried together at the St Giles aka Ascension Parish Burial Ground.

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• 2. The Expanding Pages Of The Golden Bough

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  The first edition of The Golden Bough appeared in two volumes during 1890. A second expanded version containing three volumes followed in 1900. The massive third edition reached completion in 1915 spanning twelve separate volumes. A supplemental thirteenth volume arrived in 1936 to add further material. His wife Elizabeth Grove Frazer created a single-volume abridgement published in 1922 that excluded controversial sections about Christianity. She adapted many of his stories into children's books under the title The Leaves from the Golden Bough. The work grew beyond academic circles to influence psychologists and psychiatrists throughout the early twentieth century. Sigmund Freud cited Totemism and Exogamy frequently when writing his own book Totem and Taboo: Resemblances Between the Psychic Lives of Savages and Neurotics. T.S. Eliot drew heavily upon Frazer's symbolic cycle of life death and rebirth for his poem The Waste Land which appeared in 1922. The site and cult of Nemi became particularly significant as Mary Beard noted it marked the source of social anthropology discipline. Edmund Leach later wrote critical articles challenging Frazer's methodology starting with one featured in Anthropology Today vol. 1 in 1985.

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• 3. Magic Religion And Science In Order

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  Frazer proposed that cultures passed through three distinct stages over time moving from magic to religion to science. This theory diverged sharply from earlier anthropological descriptions including those by Auguste Comte because he believed magic preceded religion entirely. He defined magic separately from belief in supernatural forces or superstition while presenting an ambivalent view of its cultural role. Magic and science shared emphasis on experimentation and practicality according to Frazer's system. Almost any disproven scientific hypothesis technically constituted magic under his classification framework. Religion differed from both magic and science since it involved belief in personal supernatural forces requiring appeasement attempts. Jason Josephson-Storm described Frazer's view of religion as a momentary aberration within human thought history. Frazer ultimately sought to create a narrative of secularization representing one of the first social-scientific expressions of disenchantment. He acknowledged that magic sometimes returned to become science such as when alchemy evolved into chemistry during Early Modern Europe. Yet Frazer displayed deep anxiety about widespread magical beliefs potentially empowering lower-class populations indicating biases against them. His classification notably excluded certain possibilities though some scholars suggest four stages might exist instead of three.

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• 4. Four Myths Explaining Human Mortality

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  Frazer collected death origin stories throughout the British Empire grouping them into four specific categories. The Story of the Two Messengers appears commonly across Africa where two messages carry eternal life and death respectively. Among Bantu people like the Zulu Unkulunkulu sent a chameleon with a message of immortality but the lizard dawdled eating and sleeping. Meanwhile a lizard messenger delivered death quickly so mankind received mortality before life. Children punish lizards today by putting tobacco in their mouths causing nicotine poisoning while they writhen turning colours. Variations exist among Akamba who name the thrush alongside the chameleon or Ashanti who use goat and sheep messengers. The Bura people of northern Nigeria tell how a worm asked Hyel what to do with a dead man but a malicious lizard Agadzagadza hurried ahead telling them to bury him instead. In Togoland dog and frog serve as messengers going first from mankind to God for answers. Stories associating the moon with death's origin appear especially around Pacific regions including Fiji where rat god Ra Kalavo prevented resurrection. Wotjobaluk aborigines claim the moon revived the dead until an old man stopped it while Cham goddesses were sent away to prevent revival. Animals shedding skin like snakes appeared immortal to primitive peoples leading to tales about lost immortality. Vietnam's Jade Emperor promised humans could shed skins when old but snakes threatened the messenger into switching the order. Nias islanders believed failure to fast caused humanity to inherit banana plant mortality rather than crab-like eternal renewal.

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• 5. Freud And Eliot Borrow Frazer's Framework

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  Sigmund Freud founder of psychoanalysis cited Totemism and Exogamy frequently within his own work Totem and Taboo: Resemblances Between the Psychic Lives of Savages and Neurotics published in 1919. T.S. Eliot created The Waste Land poem in 1922 drawing directly upon Frazer's symbolic cycle of life death and rebirth found behind myths of many peoples. This fascination captivated a generation of artists and poets throughout the early twentieth century. The symbolic patterns Frazer identified became central to understanding modernist literature and psychological theory simultaneously. His theories provided structure for exploring human consciousness through comparative mythology and ritual analysis. Critics later argued that these applications sometimes oversimplified complex cultural traditions while others praised their innovative cross-disciplinary approach. The influence extended well beyond conventional academic boundaries affecting how psychologists understood primitive thought processes. Frazer's detailed information continued serving as reference material for mythographers decades after initial publication. His vision of annual sacrifice of the Year-King remained influential despite field studies failing to confirm its universal application. The work inspired new approaches to studying ancient cults rites and myths including parallels with early Christianity.

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• 6. Late Twentieth Century Scholarly Reckoning

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  Frazer's pioneering work faced increasing criticism from late-twentieth-century scholars regarding methodological flaws and biases. Edmund Leach wrote critical articles starting with one featured in Anthropology Today vol. 1 during 1985 challenging The Golden Bough's breadth of comparisons across widely separated cultures. J.D. Hawkins offered positive reviews of narrowly focused works like Volkert Haas's Der Kult von Nerik published in 1973 noting methodical adherence to documentary evidence unlike Frazer's broader approach. Modern critics widely perceive imperialist anti-Catholic classist and racist elements within Frazer's anthropological methodology. He assumed European peasants Aboriginal Australians and Africans represented fossilized earlier stages of cultural evolution. Timothy Larsen criticized Frazer for applying western European Christian ideas theology and terminology to non-Christian cultures distorting their meaning. Frazer routinely described non-Christian religious figures by equating them directly with Christian ones calling elders of Njamus equivalent to Levites or Grand Lama of Lhasa the Buddhist Pope. He used specifically Christian theological terms born again baptism christening sacrament unclean when referring to non-Christian cultures despite objections from colleagues like Walter Baldwin Spencer. When Spencer requested using native terminology for Aboriginal Australian cultures Frazer insisted on Abrahamic terms claiming they would seem less pedantic yet more accurate. Based on these exchanges Larsen concluded Frazer deliberately substituted Judeo-Christian terminology not to make native cultures appear less strange but rather to make Christianity seem more barbaric.

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