James Frazer

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James George Frazer (born January 1, 1854, in]] – May 7, 1941), was a Scottish social anthropologist influential in the early stages of the modern studies of mythology and comparative religion.

Life

James Frazer was born in Glasgow, Scotland. He studied at the University of Glasgow and Trinity College at Cambridge, where he graduated with honors in Classics (his dissertation would be published years later as The Growth of Plato's Ideal Theory) and remained a Classics Fellow all his life. He went on from Trinity to study law at the Middle Temple and yet never practised. He was four times elected to Trinity's Title Alpha Fellowship, and was associated with the college for most of his life, except for a year, 1907-1908, spent at the University of Liverpool. He was knighted in 1914. He was, if not blind, then severely visually impaired from 1930 on.

Except for Italy and Greece, Frazer was not widely traveled. His prime sources of data were ancient histories and questionnaires mailed to missionaries and Imperial officials all over the globe. Frazer's interest in social anthropology was aroused by reading E. B. Tylor's Primitive Culture (1871) and encouraged by his friend, the biblical scholar William Robertson Smith, who was linking the Old Testament with early Hebrew folklore.

Work

The study of [[mythology|]] and religion became his areas of expertise Frazer was far from being the first to study religions dispassionately, as a cultural phenomenon rather than from within theology. He was though the first to detail the relations between myths and rituals. His theories of totemism were superseded by Claude Lévi-Strauss and his vision of the annual sacrifice of the Year King has not been borne out by field studies. His generation's choice of Darwinian evolution as a social paradigm, interpreted by Frazer as three rising stages of human progress — magic giving rise to religion, then culminating in science — has not proved valid. Yet The Golden Bough, his study of ancient cults, rites, and myths, including their parallels with early Christianity, arguably his greatest work, is still rifled by modern mythographers for its detailed information. Notably, The Golden Bough influenced René Girard; and led him to study anthropology to develop his mimesis theory of the scapegoat. The work's influence spilled well over the conventional bounds of academia, however; the symbolic cycle of life, death and rebirth which Frazer divined behind myths of all pedigrees captivated a whole generation of artists and poets. Perhaps the most notable product of this fascination is T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land.

The first edition, in two volumes, was published in 1890. The third edition was finished in 1915 and ran to twelve volumes, with a supplemental thirteenth volume added in 1936. He also published a single volume abridgement, largely compiled by his wife Lady Frazer, in 1922, with some controversial material removed from the text.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Downie, Angus R. (1940). James George Frazer: The Portrait of a Scholar. Watts & Co.

Bibliography

• Frazer, James G. 1942. Man, God, and Immortality. Kessinger Publishing (original published 1927). ISBN 0766101886

• Frazer, James G. 1967. The Growth of Plato's Ideal Theory. Russell & Russell Pub. (original published 1930). ISBN 0846208407

• Frazer, James G. 2000. The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead. Routledge-Curzon (original published 1913). ISBN 0700713395

• Frazer, James G. 2000. The Fear of the Dead in Primitive Religion. Routledge-Curzon (original published in 1933). ISBN 0700713409

• Frazer, James G. 2000. Totemism and Exogamy. Routledge-Curzon (original published 1910). ISBN 0700713387

• Frazer, James G. 2002. Creation and Evolution in Primitive Cosmogenies, and Other Pieces. Curzon Press. (original published 1935). ISBN 0700714502

• Frazer, James G. 2002. Devil's Advocate: A Plea for Superstitions. Curzon Press. (original published 1928). ISBN 0700714448

• Frazer, James G. 2002. Folk-lore in the Old Testament: Studies in Comparative Religion, Legend and Law. Curzon Press. (original published 1918). ISBN 0700714405

• Frazer, James G. 2002. Garnered Sheaves. Curzon Press. (original published 1931). ISBN 0700714391

• Frazer, James G. 2002. The Gorgon's Head and other Literary Pieces. Curzon Press. (original published 1927). ISBN 070071443X

• Frazer, James G. 2002. The Magical Origins of Kings. Curzon Press. ISBN 0700714413

• Frazer, James G. 2002. Myths of the Origin of Fire. Curzon Press. (originalpublished 1930). ISBN 0700714510

• Frazer, James G. 2002. The Worship of Nature. Curzon Press (original published 1926). ISBN 0700714421

• Frazer, James G. 2005. Stories of the Great Flood from Different Civilizations. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 1425362818

• Frazer, James G. 2006. Adonis Attis Osiris: Studies in the History of Oriental Religion. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 1425499910

• Frazer, James G. & Stocking, George W. 1998. The Golden Bough: Abridged Edition. Penguin Classics (original published 1890). ISBN 0140189319

External links

• Sir James Frazer: brief analysis

• The Golden Bough: on-line text, 1922 abridged edition

• Works by James Frazer. Project Gutenberg

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