Yet The Golden Bough, his study of ancient cults, rites, and myths, including their parallels in early Christianity, is still studied by modern mythographers for its detailed information.
His generation's choice of Darwinian evolution as a social paradigm, interpreted by Frazer as three stages of human progress-magic giving rise to religion, then culminating in science-has not proved valid. His vision of the annual sacrifice of the Year-King has not been borne out by field studies. His theories of totemism were superseded by the work of the French anthropologist, Claude Lévi-Strauss, who developed the concept of structuralism. Tylor's Primitive Culture (1871) and encouraged by his friend, the biblical scholar William Robertson Smith, who was comparing elements of the Old Testament with early Hebrew folklore.įrazer was the first scholar to describe in detail the relations between myths and rituals. Frazer's interest in social anthropology was aroused by reading E. His prime sources of data were ancient histories and questionnaires mailed to missionaries and imperial officials all over the globe. Except for visits to Italy and Greece, Frazer was not widely travelled. The study of myth and religion became his areas of expertise. They are buried at the Ascension Parish Burial Ground in Cambridge, England. He and his wife, Lily, died within a few hours of each other. He was, if not blind, then severely visually impaired from 1930 on. He was knighted in 1914, and a public lectureship in social anthropology at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford, Glasgow and Liverpool was established in his honour in 1921. From Trinity, he went on to study law at the Middle Temple, but never practised.įour times elected to Trinity's Title Alpha Fellowship, he was associated with the college for most of his life, except for a year, 1907–1908, spent at the University of Liverpool. He studied at the University of Glasgow and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated with honours in Classics (his dissertation was published years later as The Growth of Plato's Ideal Theory) and remained a Classics Fellow all his life. 2.3 The Story of the Serpent and his Cast Skinīorn in Glasgow, Scotland, Frazer attended school at Springfield Academy and Larchfield Academy in Helensburgh.2.2 The Story of the Waxing and Waning Moon.
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