James George Frazer
He mapped the shared stories of humanity, arguing that magic and religion were the primitive roots of science in his monumental work, The Golden Bough.
1854–1941 (age 87)·Scottish social anthropologist and folklorist·Birthday: January 1
Biography
James George Frazer was a Scottish scholar who spent his life in libraries, weaving a vast tapestry of human belief from ancient rituals to contemporary folklore. His masterwork, 'The Golden Bough,' first published in 1890 and expanded over decades, proposed a controversial but captivating theory: that human thought evolved from magic through religion to arrive at science. While his armchair anthropology, reliant on reports from missionaries and travelers, has been criticized by later field researchers, his comparative method was revolutionary. Frazer's writing, rich with narrative and example, captivated a generation of writers, artists, and thinkers, from T.S. Eliot to Sigmund Freud, making mythology a subject of serious intellectual inquiry for the modern public.
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James's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1854Born
1859Started school
1867Became a teenager
President: Andrew Johnson
1870Could drive
President: Ulysses S. Grant
1872Could vote
President: Ulysses S. Grant
1875Turned 21
President: Ulysses S. Grant
1884Turned 30
President: Chester A. Arthur
1894Turned 40
President: Grover Cleveland
1904Turned 50
New York City opens its first subway line
President: Theodore Roosevelt
1914Turned 60
World War I begins
President: Woodrow Wilson
1924Turned 70
First Winter Olympics held in Chamonix, France
President: Calvin Coolidge"It Had to Be You" — Isham Jones
1934Turned 80
Gas: $0.19/galPresident: Franklin D. Roosevelt"Stars Fell on Alabama" — Jack TeagardenBest Picture: It Happened One Night
1941Died at 87
Pearl Harbor attack brings the US into WWII
Gas: $0.19/galHome: $3,060Min wage: $0.30/hrPresident: Franklin D. Roosevelt"Chattanooga Choo Choo" — Glenn MillerBest Picture: How Green Was My Valley
Key Achievements
- Authored the monumental and influential comparative study of mythology and religion, 'The Golden Bough,' across multiple volumes.
- His work pioneered the comparative method in anthropology, analyzing similar myths and rituals across disparate cultures.
- Received a knighthood in 1914 for his contributions to anthropology and literature.
- His ideas profoundly influenced modernist literature, most notably T.S. Eliot's poem 'The Waste Land.'
Did You Know?
He was a strictly academic anthropologist who never conducted fieldwork, working entirely from texts and reports.
Frazer was initially trained as a classicist and his first major work was a six-volume translation of and commentary on the Greek travel writer Pausanias.
He turned down the offer of a professorship at the University of Liverpool to remain a fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge.
A 1998 biography revealed he likely had Asperger's syndrome, which may have aided his immense capacity for systematic, detailed research.
““The awe and dread with which the untutored savage contemplates his mother-in-law are amongst the most familiar facts of anthropology.””
