James George Frazer

James George Frazer was a Scottish social anthropologist and folklorist whose comparative study The Golden Bough examined myth, magic, and religion.

The Golden Bough: A multivolume study by James George Frazer comparing myths, rituals, magic, and religion across societies. This work made Frazer’s name and contains his best-known theories.
Law of similarity: A principle of sympathetic magic in which like is believed to produce or affect like. Frazer used it to explain imitative practices such as harming an image to injure its subject.
William Robertson Smith: A Scottish scholar of religion and Semitic languages whose work influenced the comparative study of ritual. Smith’s ideas helped direct Frazer toward ritual and ancient religion.
The Dying-and-Rising God: A proposed mythic pattern in which a deity dies or disappears and later returns to life or power. Frazer’s account popularized this comparative category, whose validity remains disputed.
Armchair anthropology: Anthropological research based mainly on texts and reports rather than direct fieldwork. Frazer’s method raises questions about what comparative theory can establish without firsthand observation.
Sympathetic magic: A magical practice based on the belief that objects or actions can influence one another through similarity or contact. Frazer used its principles to classify practices he interpreted as magic.
Law of contact: A principle of sympathetic magic in which things once in contact are believed to remain connected. Frazer used it to interpret practices involving hair, clothing, or other personal traces.
Jane Ellen Harrison: A British classicist who interpreted ancient Greek religion through ritual and anthropology. Harrison developed interpretations of Greek religion in dialogue with Frazer’s comparative method.
Myth and ritual theory: The approach that explains myths through their relationship to ritual practices. Frazer’s emphasis on ritual helped establish a major line of myth interpretation.
Evolutionism in anthropology: The use of evolutionary models to explain changes in human societies and cultures. Frazer’s stages invite scrutiny of whether cultural development follows a universal sequence.

Linked from 23 pages