Description
Book SynopsisThis work by Sir James Frazer (1854â1941) is widely considered to be one of the most important early texts in the fields of psychology and anthropology. At the same time, by applying modern methods of comparative ethnography to the classical world, and revealing the superstition and irrationality beneath the surface of the classical culture which had for so long been a model for Western civilisation, it was extremely controversial. Frazer was greatly influenced by E. B. Tylor's Primitive Culture (also reissued in this series), and by the work of the biblical scholar William Robertson Smith, to whom the first edition is dedicated. The twelve-volume third edition, reissued here, was greatly revised and enlarged, and published between 1911 and 1915; the two-volume first edition (1890) is also available in this series. Volume 2 (1911) explores different types of vegetation worship and the roles of gods.
Table of Contents8. Departmental kings of nature; 9. The worship of trees; 10. Relics of tree-worship in Modern Europe; 11. The influence of the sexes on vegetation; 12. The sacred marriage; 13. The kings of Rome and Alba; 14. The king's fire; 15. The fire-drill; 16. Father Jove and Mother Vesta; 17. The origin of perpetual fires; 18. The succession to the kingdom in Ancient Latium; 19. St George and the Parilia; 20. The worship of the oak; 21. Dianus and Diana; Index.
