The Golden Bough

This is a representative work by British anthropologist and classical scholar J. Frazer. The first edition was published in 1890, and the definitive third edition, consisting of 13 volumes, was published between 1911 and 1936. Frazer's intention was to explain the legend of the succession of the priesthood of the sacred grove on the shores of Lake Nemi in Italy - a legend that there is a tree in the forest, and a person who wishes to become a priest must break off a branch of the tree and kill the previous priest. However, by making full use of a wealth of materials such as myths, customs, and magical activities collected from all over the world, he argued that the intellectual development of humanity went through an evolutionary process from magic to religion, and from religion to science. His method of presenting materials that were not based on his own research without considering the social and historical circumstances has been criticized by modern anthropologists who base their research on field research, and the inaccuracies of the descriptions have been pointed out, and his evolutionist theory has come to be rejected today. However, The Golden Bough is considered a classic of cultural anthropology as it is a pioneering work on major issues of interest in later anthropology, such as the distinction between sympathetic magic and contagious magic, the relationship between magic and religion, sacred kingship, and the issue of regicide.

[Ueda Noriyuki]

"The Golden Bough, translated by Takusuke Nagahashi, 5 volumes (Iwanami Bunko)"

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

イギリスの人類学者・古典学者であるJ・フレーザーの代表的著作。1890年に初版が、1911年から36年にかけて決定版である第3版全13巻が刊行された。フレーザーの意図は、イタリアのネミ湖畔に伝わる聖なる森の祭司職継承の伝説――森の中に1本の樹(き)があり、祭司になろうとする者はその樹の枝を折り、前任の祭司を殺さねばならないという伝説――を説明することにあるが、世界中から集められた神話、習慣、呪術(じゅじゅつ)的活動などの豊富な資料を駆使するなかで、彼は、人類の知的発展が呪術から宗教へ、宗教から科学へという進化的過程を経ることを主張した。自らの調査に基づかない資料をその社会的、歴史的状況を考慮せずに呈示する方法は、現地調査を基本とする現代の人類学者によって批判され、記述の不正確さが指摘されるとともに、その進化主義的学説は現在では否定されるに至っている。しかし、類感呪術と感染呪術の区別、呪術と宗教の関係、神聖王権、王殺しの問題など、後世の人類学における主要な関心事についての先駆的な業績である『金枝篇』は、文化人類学の古典とされている。

［上田紀行］

『永橋卓介訳『金枝篇』全5冊（岩波文庫）』

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