"I remember the shock, the combined shock of interest and almost of horror, with which The Golden Bough burst upon classical scholars like me when it first appeared in 1890. Of course it was not quite our first introduction to anthropology. We knew something of Tylor and Andrew Lang and perhaps Mannhardt, perhaps even of Robertson Smith's sacred camel which had to be eaten alive before sunrise. But Frazer, for one thing, overpowered us with his mass of carefully ordered facts. We had heard of "the beastly devices of the heathen" but had not realised their great number and variety, had not understood the method which underlay their madness."
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Lawyers from ScotlandUniversity of Cambridge facultyPeople from GlasgowAnthropologists from ScotlandNon-fiction authors from Scotland
Original Language: English
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Sources
Gilbert Murray, 'The Author of ‘The Golden Bough’', The Listener, Vol. LI, No. 1297 (7 January 1954), p. 13
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Frazer
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James Frazer
Sir James George Frazer (January 1, 1854 – May 7, 1941) was a Scottish social anthropologist influential in the early stages of the modern studies of mythology and comparative religion. He is often considered one of the founding fathers of modern anthropology.
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