Zlatna grana: proučavanje magije i religije

Sir James George Frazer (1854-1941) was a Scottish anthropologist who specialized in the study of myth and religion. His early research into the development of religion, in the progress of humanity from a primitive to a civilized social structure, gave birth to a series of theories about the historical evolution of ancient cults, rites, rituals and religious beliefs.

The Golden Bough is Frazer's greatest and best-known work, the gathering place of his mature theories. In it, Frazer begins by researching the hereditary rituals of the priest-kings in Diana's Grove, a sacred forest in ancient Italy. The rite included the ancient custom of allowing a runaway slave to fight the king - and possibly claim his title - if he could first break a branch from a special golden tree. Frazer saw a connection between the story and Virgil's epic poem the Aeneid, in which the possession of a golden branch allows the hero Aeneas to descend into the underworld. Much of Frazer's book draws from this exploration of the ancient cult of the tree, the efforts of early peoples to control nature, and the ritual killing of divine kings.