Frazer, Sir James George

Sir James George Frazer, 1933. [Credit: T & R Annan & Sons, Ltd., Glasgow]

1, 1854, Glasgow, Scot.—died May 7, 1941, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, Eng.) British anthropologist, folklorist, and classical scholar. Frazer attended Glasgow University and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he became a professor and remained the rest of his life. In The Golden Bough (1890; enlarged to 12 vols., 1911–15), Frazer examined the evolution of modes of thought from the magical to the religious and, finally, to the scientific. Although his evolutionary sequence is no longer accepted, Frazer's synthesis of the new science of cultural anthropology with traditional humanistic concerns and his lively descriptions of exotic cultural beliefs and practices had a wide influence. His other works include Totemism and Exogamy (1910) and Folk-Lore in the Old Testament (1918).