Frazer’s greatest innovation remains, perhaps, his systematic categorizing of other people’s findings in order to compare and contrast different cultural groupings.Ī recent biography by Robert Ackerman has shed new light on Frazer’s attitude toward his own work. He relied heavily on historical accounts by ancient historians, as well as surveys and questions sent to the missionaries on their travels. Apart from some trips to Spain and Greece, he was not considered to be a widely travelled man. But Frazer rarely researched his own data. Indeed, he published something on almost everything he ever took notes on. It is generally noted that Frazer read copious amounts of literature by other anthropologists and researchers (including various missionaries with whom he corresponded regularly) it is also generally acknowledged that Frazer was a master note-taker and categorizer. More important, however, was the criticism that Frazer was a ‘desk-anthropologist’ with little original contributions to make to the field. He was accused of rarely wanting to discuss his ideas or even to hold lectures to elaborate upon them, the Gifford Lectures of 1923 to 1925 being notable exceptions. Various reviewers to this day are unsure whether Frazer used this book to expound upon his own subtle anti-religiosity or if he was expressing an equally subtle version of Christian faith at odds with the politics and hierarchy of the Catholic Church.Īlthough Frazer treated religion carefully and with a high degree of dispassion, he nonetheless had his critics. A later, expanded edition of the book included and compared similar rites practiced in European countries, drawing parallels between ritual practices in early Christianity and the non-European world. In 1890 Frazer published the first edition of his now-famous The Golden Bough, which described a ritual that took place at the Arician grove at Nemi, in Italy-a grove that had been sacred to Diana, the Roman goddess of the hunt. This stood in stark contrast to previous modes of theological discourse, which had sought to rationalise the truth-value inherent in various religious claims.
Often considered one of the founders of contemporary anthropology, and a major influence on twentieth-century social anthropology, Frazer was among the first to study ‘religion’ as a social activity that could be compared and contrasted. He was the first professor of ‘social anthropology’ in Great Britain in Liverpool, although he only held the post for one year before returning permanently to Cambridge.
In 1885 he read a paper on burial customs to the Anthropological Institute indeed, Frazer’s later career was marked by his unprecedented interest in the links between myths and rituals. Tylor’s book Primitive Culture (1871) and was soon delivering papers on anthropological subjects. By that time, Frazer had also been introduced to E. In 1888, as the editor of the ninth edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Smith asked Frazer to write two articles for the publication-one on ‘Taboo’ and the other on ‘Totemism’. The two became friends and Smith encouraged Frazer to consider studying religious cultures and their rituals. Frazer’s interest in anthropology began in 1883 when Cambridge hired William Robertson Smith as Professor of Arabic.
Rather, his fame came from the anthropological works he published later in life. However, it was not in classical theory that Frazer made his academic mark. It was a post he would hold until the end of his life. Frazer wrote the classical tripos exam at Cambridge in 1878 and in 1879 was offered a fellowship by the university. In Helensburgh and Glasgow he studied ancient philosophy and literature, which he continued at Trinity College, Cambridge. in 1869, Frazer was initiated early on into the tradition of classical studies. Schooled initially at Larchfield Academy, Helensburgh, and then at the University of Glasgow, where he graduated with an M.A. The eldest of four children, Frazer was raised in a devout Presbyterian household. Frazer, a pharmacist, and Katherine Brown of Helensburgh. Classical philosopher and anthropologist Sir James George Frazer was born in Glasgow, 1 January 1854, to Daniel F.
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