The golden branch
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
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."
in German for example "Frazer is much wilder than most of these savages"
expenditure
- The Golden Bough, First Edition (1890, in 2 volumes) (1894 edition: Vol. 1 Vol. 2 )
- The Golden Bough, Second Edition (1900, in 6 volumes)
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The Golden Bough, Third Edition (London 1907–1915, in 12 volumes), in detail:
- The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings (2 parts) Vol. 1 Vol. 2
- Taboo and the Perils of the Soul digitized
- The Dying God digitized
- Adonis, Attis, Osiris. Studies in the History of Oriental Religion (2 parts) Vol. 1 Vol. 2
- Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild (2 parts) Vol. 1 Vol. 2
- The Scapegoat digitized
- Balder the Beautiful. The Fire-Festivals of Europe and the Doctrine of the External Soul (2 parts) Vol. 1 Vol. 2
- Bibliography and General Index Digitization
- Aftermath (Supplement, 1936) digitized
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The Golden Bough. Abridged Edition (1922, 1 volume). Online
German edition: The golden branch. The secret of the beliefs and customs of the peoples. Hirschfeld, Leipzig 1928; Reprints: Kiepenheuer and Witsch, Cologne 1968; Ullstein, Frankfurt 1977; Rowohlt, Reinbek 1989
See also
literature
- Ludwig Wittgenstein: Remarks on Frazer's Golden Bough. Brynmill Press, 1987, ISBN 0907839258
Web links
Text copies of the 1922 edition:
- The Golden Bough. eBooks @ Adelaide
- The Golden Bough. HTML at sacred-texts.com
- Download MP3 as an audio book from LbriVox
Individual evidence
- ^ Ludwig Wittgenstein : Remarks on Frazer's Golden Bough, p. 131