The Golden Bough

A comparative study of ritual, kingship, magic, and religion by James George Frazer, first published in 1890. Its theory of cultural evolution traces religion’s emergence from magic and its eventual replacement by science.

Sympathetic magic: A form of magic based on believed connections between things that resemble or have touched one another. Frazer divides magic into laws of similarity and contact.
Law of similarity: The principle that like produces like, underlying imitative forms of sympathetic magic. Frazer uses it to explain rites that imitate the desired outcome.
James George Frazer: A Scottish classicist and anthropologist known for The Golden Bough and comparative studies of myth and religion. Frazer gathered and interpreted the materials that shaped the book.
The Waste Land: A 1922 poem by T. S. Eliot that uses fragmented voices, myths, and images of cultural desolation. Eliot drew on Frazer’s fertility and vegetation motifs while composing the poem.
Ritual: A structured sequence of actions performed according to established conventions, often carrying social or religious meaning. Frazer compares rites across societies to identify recurring patterns.
Law of contact: The principle that things once in contact continue to affect one another at a distance. It accounts for magic performed through a person’s hair, clothing, or possessions.
The Golden Bough (painting): A painting by J. M. W. Turner depicting a sacred landscape associated with Virgil’s Aeneid. Turner’s image inspired Frazer’s title and its classical allusion.
Myth and ritual school: A scholarly approach that interprets myths as closely connected to ritual practices. Frazer’s comparisons helped inspire theories linking myths to rites.
Sacred kingship: A form of rulership in which a king’s authority or welfare is linked to sacred powers. Frazer interprets royal customs through beliefs about fertility and communal well-being.
Dying-and-rising god: A deity whose death and return are associated with renewal, fertility, or the cycle of seasons. Frazer connected seasonal renewal rites to his account of divine kingship.

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