Historical Context
Frazer published the first edition of The Golden Bough in 1890, just eight years after the death of Charles Darwin. Darwin, a British...
(The entire section is 623 words.)
Literary Style
Archetype
An archetype is a model or type in literature that is considered to be universal, occurring in all cultures at all...
(The entire section is 368 words.)
Bibliography and Further Reading
Sources
Hyman, Stanley Edgar, ‘‘What Do You Dance?,’’ in The Tangled Bank: Darwin, Marx, Frazer, and Freud as...
(The entire section is 210 words.)
Bibliography
(Critical Survey of Literature for Students)
Ackerman, Robert. The Myth and Ritual School: J. G. Frazer and the Cambridge Ritualists. New York: Garland, 1991. Reprint. New York: Routledge, 2002. Examines the ideas expressed in The Golden Bough and in the works of other Cambridge University-based scholars whose ideas linked myth theory, the classics, and anthropology to create a new school of religious thought.
Douglas, Mary. “Judgements on James Frazer.” Daedalus 107, no. 4 (Fall, 1978): 151-164. A masterful assessment of Frazer’s critics and work by a leading anthropologist. Addresses the intellectual and cultural problems involved in criticizing works produced by earlier generations.
...(The entire section is 355 words.)
Compare and Contrast
1890: People in Europe and the United States know little about non-Western culture; they refer to Africa as ‘‘The Dark...
(The entire section is 112 words.)
Topics for Further Study
Look for a behavior that is apparent in everyday life but that people seem to do for no other reason than tradition. Try to discover what...
(The entire section is 151 words.)
What Do I Read Next?
Joseph Campbell was arguably the most popular writer on myth in the late twentieth century. His most famous work is The Power of Myth,...
(The entire section is 187 words.)