The Golden Bough

Book excerpt: The Golden Bough is a wide-ranging, comparative study of mythology and religion, written by the Scottish anthropologist Sir James George Frazer. The book documents and details the similarities among magical and religious beliefs around the globe. Frazer attempted to define the shared elements of religious belief and scientific thought, discussing fertility rites, human sacrifice, the dying god, the scapegoat, and many other symbols and practices whose influences had extended into 20th-century culture. His thesis is that old religions were fertility cults that revolved around the worship and periodic sacrifice of a sacred king. Frazer proposed that mankind progresses from magic through religious belief to scientific thought. The influence of The Golden Bough on contemporary European literature and thought is substantial.