Download James George Frazer

(Sir) James George Frazer
1 January 1854, Glasgow – 7 May 1941, Cambridge
* Scottish social anthropologist, folklorist, and classical scholar
* Influential in the early modern studies of mythology and
comparative religion.
* Often considered one of the founding fathers of modern
anthropology.
* First studied in an academy in Helensburgh, Dumbarton.
* Frazer went to Glasgow University (1869), entered Trinity
College, Cambridge (1874), and became a fellow (1879).
In 1907 he was appointed professor of social anthropology at
Liverpool, but he returned to Cambridge after one session,
remaining there for the rest of his life.
* <The Golden Bough : A Study in Comparative Religion >
-Established his outstanding position among anthropologists.
-comparative study of mythology and religion all over the
globe.(diverse examples and stories)
-every religion and magical stuff originated from the same origin.
-attempts to define the shared elements of religious belief to
scientific thought
-According to Frazer, science was created(?) from the evolutionary
progress of magic.
-affected great many anthropologists such as Bronisław Malinowski.
-also had a huge influence on literature/socialogy of the period.
→Robert Graves, William Butler Yeats, T. S. Eliot, Sigmund Freud,
James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, D. H. Lawrence, Ezra Pound,
Joseph Campbell : deeply influenced by <The Golden Bough>
*
-Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein made so much comments about
Frazer’s work that his commentaries have been compiled as <Remarks
on Frazer's Golden Bough>.
He writes, "Frazer is much more savage than most of these savages.“
This is because he emphasized magic and religion of prehistoric
times, and said that those rituals then turned into science.
-Weston LaBarre said that Frazer was "the last of the scholastics", and
wrote The Golden Bough "as an extended footnote to a line in Virgil he
felt he did not understand.”
-Modern criticisms. For example, Robert Ackerman in his <The Myth
and Ritual School: J. G. Frazer and the Cambridge Ritualists>
-His connection of social anthropology and Darwinian evolution-the
three steps of magic-religion-scientific thoughts development is
considered unreasonable.
* Nowadays still mentioned in the field of anthropology.
Even though evolutionary sequence of magical, religious,
and scientific thought has been accepted dissatisfactory,
there is no doubt that he was significant in synthesizing
and comparing a wider range of magic and religions.
* Also, you can sometimes his name and his great book,
<The Golden Bough> when you are preparing for the Toefl
Test.
*
*study of ancient cults, rites, and myths,
including their parallels with early Christianity.
*There is no doubt that it is a greatly
influential book.
*Even though not all of his works are
considered valid, he still provided the most
wide-ranging, deep study and comparison of
mythology and religion for other fellow early
modern anthropologists and the society.
* I think that his such broad research and
works should be respected. His works have
influenced even Freud, Campbell, and other
famous writers.