James George Frazer

James George Frazer was born in Glasgow in 1854 and studied at the University of Glasgow and then at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he became a fellow in 1879 and remained for most of his life. Trained in the classics, he became interested in anthropology after reading the work of Edward Burnett Tylor. He never did fieldwork himself, but he corresponded with missionaries, colonial officials and travelers around the world and read widely in their reports. His great work, The Golden Bough, first published in two volumes in 1890 and later expanded to twelve, begins with an ancient Roman custom, the priest-king of the sacred grove at Nemi, and compares myths, rituals and beliefs from many cultures. Frazer argued that human thought had developed in stages, from magic to religion to science. A shorter one-volume edition appeared in 1922. The book was widely read and influenced writers such as T. S. Eliot. Frazer also translated the Greek writer Pausanias. He was knighted in 1914 and died in Cambridge in 1941.

James George Frazer is also an author in the library: author page and works.

Faith: Commonly interpreted as an atheist because of his criticism of Christianity. Source: Wikipedia