J.G. Frazer – 1890
Despite temptations, I won’t claim to have read all twelve volumes of Scottish
anthropologist Sir James George Frazer’s mammoth work of comparative religion;
though I have read long sections of it here and there. This review is
based on re-reading the single-volume abridgement for the first time in over
twenty years; which is no tiny book itself; even in truncated form, it is still
about as long as the Bible. I don’t make that comparison flippantly; I
often regarded The Golden Bough as my
secret, alternative Bible, the more satisfying and meaningful one that by night
would supplement the day’s religious indoctrination. I approach it as a
work of beautiful prose as much as scholarship; and I’m not at all concerned
with the numerous attempts to discredit the book over the years. I don’t
feel threatened by Frazer’s sweeping observations. Much like Freud, his
contemporary, Frazer has often been attacked for generalizing and for periodic
errors in detail. Having actually read him instead of just reading about him, I have noticed that Frazer is
careful to clarify that he is basing much of his commentary on remote research
and anecdotes forwarded to him by others, which don’t lend themselves to meticulous
scientific verification. It seems clear to me that Frazer was satisfied
that the very point of this plethora of similar stories from all over the world
is the fact that they are indeed stories and are naturally vulnerable to all
manner of distortion as they pass from mouth to ear innumerable times.
That the key details in all these stories remain so consistent is
remarkable and evidence to Frazer of their power. The Golden Bough is an exhaustive, and exhausting, compendium of
pagan religious practices throughout history and across continents. It is
hardly dry, though; in fact, quite the opposite. It takes me a long time
to get through the book because I often have to stop to carefully absorb a
certain passage, make notes of things I want to remember, and cross-reference
items both in and out of the book. Frazer’s theses are many, but the
chief one – as the unifier of the book’s material – is that mankind has
progressed through three distinct stages comparable to those experienced by the
individual person over a single lifetime; first superstition, then religion,
and finally science. (I assume we are still in the scientific stage, but
I always wonder how Frazer, if he were around now, would characterize our era.)
It all comes down to man’s dealings with the horrifying, indifferent
vastness of nature. Primitive man gives names and personalities to the
elements and finds ways to appease or solicit them; to protect themselves from
disaster and to encourage fertility both in the orchard and in the womb.
Man in a somewhat more sophisticated state continues the tradition of
rituals but with less hope of actually influencing nature and more to wield and
maintain power over others. The tales of rites, sacrifices, feasts and
festivals are overwhelming at times and yet hypnotically fascinating. One
of the most potent things about the book is how it causes you to think about
the ways of man today and how little things have changed over the centuries.
While we may now mostly depend on technology to hold nature at bay,
religious fervor and dependence on superstitious practices seem as strong as
ever in attempts to influence human affairs. Man has an inherent need to
worship and to supplicate, and The Golden
Bough demonstrates how the means of doing this have evolved while the core
motives behind it have remain largely unchanged.
No comments:
Post a Comment