James George Frazer

Sir James George Frazer ( born January 1, 1854 in Glasgow, † May 7, 1941 in Cambridge ) was a Scottish anthropologist and classical philologist. He is next to Sir Edward Burnett Tylor and Émile Durkheim as co-founder of the anthropology of religion.

Life

Frazer attended school in Helensburgh in Scotland. He studied at Glasgow University and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he also received his doctorate. He then studied law at the Middle Temple without ever practicing. Except for a short stay at the University of Liverpool 1907-1908, he worked all his life at Trinity College. Frazer received numerous honors. In 1914 he was elevated to a Knight Bachelor in 1920 by Sir James George Frazer Memorial Lectureship in honor of him was set up in Social Anthropology at the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Glasgow and Liverpool. He was a corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute ( from 1901) and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences. In his last years, Frazer was practically blind. He is buried with his wife in the Ascension Parish Burial Ground, Cambridge.

Work

Frazer explored the history of religion and folklore background of ancient texts. His interest was, according to the then scientific paradigm, mainly in the study of evolutionary processes, so that it lies behind the ancient sources "primitive" (ie, " original " ) wanted to make beliefs and rites visible by analogy.

Frazer's concept of religion was reductionist because he understood religion as a deficient worldview based on an incorrect cognitive perspective and the resulting fear of trial constituted to secure the threatened survival.

In the field of ethnology Frazer was trying to detect drives and motives of the so-called "savages" by comparative methods. He postulated the ability to distinguish whether a given motivation crucial for the design or just ( unknowingly ) is actually advanced and to be able to identify the true motivation behind it. Through his research Frazer contributed significantly to the recognition of anthropology as a science at.

Frazer tried in his major work " The Golden Bough " (The Golden Bough ) to connect the Greek and Roman history of religion through a comparative method in the sense of Edward Tylor and folklore services research on which Mannhardt work " forest and field cults " most influenced him. He comes to the conclusion that the evolution of the human mind on the order of magic - Religion - based science. Magic is thus the attempt to control the people threatening environment and influence in his favor, and from this springs from the knowledge of supernatural powers whose benevolence applies to achieve it through religion. This evolutionary view is nowadays no longer represented in the relevant sciences, firstly because the science is no longer necessarily of meaning is attributed, are mixed on the other magic and religion often and beyond going Frazer emanating from a performance of individual outstanding individuals and the sociological perspective rejects.

Frazer's work " totemism and exogamy " exhibited for the first time in the history of anthropology, all ethnographic data on the subject of exogamy together and true despite the criticism of Frazer's conclusions as important work.

Works

  • Totemism (1887 )
  • Description of Greece ( 1897ff., English translation of the work of Pausanias with comment; Vol 1 Vol 2 Vol 3 Vol 4 Vol 5 Vol 6)
  • Pausanias, and other Greek sketches (1900; digitized )
  • The Golden Bough ( " The Golden Bough " ) The Golden Bough, First Edition (1890, in 2 volumes ) ( edition of 1894: Vol 1 Vol 2)
  • The Golden Bough, Second Edition (1900, in 6 volumes )
  • The Golden Bough, Third Edition (1907-1915, in 12 volumes ), specifically: The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings (2 parts) Vol 1 Vol 2
  • Taboo and the Perils of the Soul digitized
  • The Dying God digitized
  • Adonis, Attis, Osiris. Studies in the History of Oriental Religion (2 parts) Vol 1 Vol 2
  • Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild (2 parts) Vol 1 Vol 2
  • The Scapegoat digitized
  • Balder the Beautiful. The Fire - Festivals of Europe and the Doctrine of the External Soul (2 parts) Vol 1 Vol 2
  • Bibliography and General Index digitized
  • Aftermath (Supplement, 1936) digitized

Quotes

"In the end is what we call truth, but only the hypothesis which has proved to be the best. "

World view Wilhelm Mannhardt Magic (paranormal) Aeneid Aeneas Integrated Authority File
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