James George Frazer

The Golden Bough: a Study in Magic and Religion, Volume I (Dodo Press) James George Frazer Abridged edition

Sir James George Frazer (1854-1941) was a Scottish social anthropologist influential in the early stages of the modern studies of mythology and comparative religion. His most famous work, The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (1890), documents and details similar magical and religious beliefs across the globe. He posited that human belief progressed through three stages: primitive magic, replaced by religion, in turn replaced by science. The study of myth and religion became his areas of expertise. His prime sources of data were ancient histories and questionnaires mailed to missionaries and Imperial officials all over the globe. He was the first to detail the relations between myths and rituals. Amongst his other works are Totemism (1887), Pausanias and Other Greek Sketches (1900), Folk-lore and the Old Testament (1907) and Letters of William Cowper (as editor) (1912).