The Scapegoat

The Golden Bough #9

by James George Frazer

This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1920 edition by Macmillan and Co., Ltd., London.

Paperback

First published February 14, 2006

About the author

Sir James George Frazer was a Scottish social anthropologist influential in the early stages of the modern studies of mythology and comparative religion. His most famous work, The Golden Bough (1890), documents and details the similarities among magical and religious beliefs around the globe. Frazer posited that human belief progressed through three stages: primitive magic, replaced by religion, in turn replaced by science.
He was married to the writer & translator Lilly Grove (Lady Frazer)

Reviews

[Mac · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those keeping score at home, this is the ninth volume in James G. Frazer's Golden Bough. Some of the previous topics were split into two volumes; this one stands alone and is longer than any of the previous eight books. Here Frazer studies the concept of the scapegoat: a person, animal, or thing that assumes the sin/evil/death of a community and then is exiled or excluded so that the community as a whole may benefit.

Some of the stories collected by Frazer are positively gruesome. But in the end he is able to tie his themes in with the overarching subject of the Golden Bough: the king of the woods who must be killed by his successor.

The finish line is almost in sight. I am eager to see where Frazer, that crazy armchair anthropologist, will lead me next.