Synopsis
Sir James George Frazer's comparative study of anthropology, folklore, and myth has been an influential work for writers and a standard text for scholars since its original publication, in several volumes, in the early part of the 20th century. Frazer was a professor of social anthropology and a classicist.
| Details | | Publication Date: | 1995-12-01 |
| Size | | Height: | 8.5 in | | Width: | 5.8 in | | Thickness: | 2.0 in | | Weight: | 30.4 oz |
Publisher's Note
A world classic. The Golden Bough describes our ancestors' primitive methods of worship, sex practices, strange rituals and festivals. Disproving the popular thought that primitive life was simple, this monumental survey shows that savage man was enmeshed in a tangle of magic, taboos, and superstitions. Revealed here is the evolution of man from savagery to civilization, from the modification of his weird and often bloodthirsty customs to the entry of lasting moral, ethical, and spiritual values.
The Golden Bough describes our ancestors' primitive methods of worship, sex practices, strange rituals and festivals. Disproving the popular thought that primitive life was simple, this monumental survey shows that savage man was enmeshed in a tangle of magic, taboos, and superstitions. Revealed here is the evolution of man from savagery to civilization, from the modification of his weird and often bloodthirsty customs to the entry of lasting moral, ethical, and spiritual values.
Industry Reviews
St. Martin's Press has for some time now accepted the noble mission of keeping Frazer's (1854-1941) seminal work (essentially a transhistoric, comparative anthropology of folklore, magic, and religion) before the public in the complete and original form of its third edition (originally published in London by Macmillan, 1911-1915), rather than the ubiquitous abridgments which debase both the subject and the author's magisterial command of his materials and his art. Contrary to opinion from some corners, this is no relic -- in the complete form presented here, it is nothing less than a window through which the modern world can watch its own emergence -- a work worthy of the company of, say, Marx and Freud. Which makes the publication on acidic paper an egregious error -- depriving the account of the endurance it deserves. (RC) Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.
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