James Frazer

Sir James George Frazer. 1854-1941. Scottish social anthropologist. Married to French writer Elizabeth Grove. In Frazer´s opinion human history is divided into three stages: magic, religion and science.

LifeBold text

He was born in Glasgow, studied at the University of Glasgow and at Trinity College in Cambridge. He was knighted in 1914. Frazer went blind in 1931 and died in Cambridge in 1941.

He is considered to be the first to have studied religion from a rather cultural and not so much theological perspective. His main work is "The Golden Bough", a study of ancient cultures and myths. It consists of 12 volumes. His theses inspired many writers and poets. The most famous poem influenced by his concepts is "The Waste Land" by T.S. Eliot.

Famous worksBold text The Golden Bough, 1890 Totemism and Exogamy, 1910 Folk-lore in the Old Testament, 1918 The Worship of Nature, 1926

ReferencesBold text Ackerman, Robert. J.G. Frazer: his Life and Work. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 1988. http://www.rw-studieren.uni-hannover.de/jamesfrazer.html