The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion: Volume I

Religion and science have sometimes been considered antithetical and have often been in conflict with one another throughout human history. With his 1890 work, Scottish anthropologist James George Frazer sought to reconcile some of these differences, analyzing the shared elements that both religion and scientific study display. In what is arguably his best-known work, Frazer set about to explore a progression, from early human traditions and rites, through organized religion, and onward into the age of scientific thought.

Evidently, Frazer's ideas were controversial. His inclusion of core Christian tenets and allegories caused a scandal among the public of his native United Kingdom, and these were removed in subsequent editions. Fellow academics also found his work to be controversial, decrying his sometimes "fast and loose" approach to ethnographic and anthropological evidence, his "overblown prose," and his "embellishment of source for dramatic effect." Despite this criticism, James George Frazer's work is an important and influential piece of late 19th-century scholarship and has certainly provided some of the foundation for modern studies of mythology and folklore.