Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, Part 1

The Golden Bough #7

by James George Frazer

This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1920 edition by Macmillan and Co., Ltd., London.

Paperback

First published January 1, 1919

About the author

Sir James George Frazer was a Scottish social anthropologist influential in the early stages of the modern studies of mythology and comparative religion. His most famous work, The Golden Bough (1890), documents and details the similarities among magical and religious beliefs around the globe. Frazer posited that human belief progressed through three stages: primitive magic, replaced by religion, in turn replaced by science.
He was married to the writer & translator Lilly Grove (Lady Frazer)

Reviews

[Walter Five · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another excellent volume of the unexpurgated Golden Bough set. Forget the single-volume edition and get all 13 volumes!!!

[Mac · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the seventh book in James G. Frazer's The Golden Bough series. The previous two volumes examined the traditions of Adonis, Attis, and Osiris, three divinities of the Near East that Frazer connects with fertility traditions. This book applies the same logic to traditions in other parts of the world, particularly Europe.

When I started reading the Golden Bough books, I thought Frazer brought in examples of traditions from around the world to support his arguments. "This ritual in Ancient Rome might mean such and such because these things in Polynesia and west Africa today mean such and such." The more I've read in the series, though, the more I have come to believe Frazer is laying out his evidence because he believes that all of humanity has evolved in the same way, just at different speeds. This is a dangerous and foolish assumption. It suggests that traditional societies are not just different from western civilization, but actually thousands of years behind in the path of development.

I'm still interested to see where all this is leading, but I do wish Frazer would pick up the pace.

[Måns Broo · Rating 2 out of 5]

This part is generally tedious, but there were some interesting parts, such as that on human sacrifice for the sake of the growth of the corn.