The golden branch

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The golden branch. A study on magic and religion , English original edition The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion , is a comprehensive comparative study of mythology and religion by the Scottish anthropologist James George Frazer (1854–1941). It was first published in two volumes in 1890. The third edition, published between 1906 and 1915, comprises twelve volumes. The title goes back to the epic Aeneid by the Roman poet Virgil , in which a golden branch gives the hero Aeneas access to the underworld.

Frazer tries to connect the Greek and Roman religious history through a comparative method in the sense of Edward Tylor and the research carried out through folklore , of which Wilhelm Mannhardt's work forest and field cults most influenced him. He comes to the conclusion that the evolution of the human mind is based on the sequence magic - religion - science. Accordingly, magic is the attempt to control the environment threatening man and to influence it in his favor, and from this arises the knowledge of supernatural powers, whose benevolence is to be achieved through religion. This evolutionist view is no longer represented in the corresponding sciences today, because on the one hand science is no longer necessarily assigned meaning, on the other hand magic and religion are often mixed up and, furthermore, Frazer assumes the achievement of individual outstanding individuals and rejects the sociological perspective.

Impact history

J. M. W. Turner ’s painting of the Golden Bough

The work influenced authors such as T. S. Eliot , Wyndham Lewis , Wolfgang Paalen , D. H. Lawrence and William Gaddis . The band The Doors used passages from the 60th chapter in their song Not to Touch the Earth .

Reviews

"Frazer is much more savage than most of these savages."

- Ludwig Wittgenstein

in German for example "Frazer is much wilder than most of these savages"

expenditure

See also

literature

  • Ludwig Wittgenstein: Remarks on Frazer's Golden Bough. Brynmill Press, 1987, ISBN 0907839258

Web links

Wikisource: The Golden Bough  - Sources and full texts (English)

Text copies of the 1922 edition:

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ludwig Wittgenstein : Remarks on Frazer's Golden Bough, p. 131