James George Frazer

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James George Frazer

James George Frazer

James George Frazer, foundational theorist of myth and ritual
Identity
Lifespan 1854–1941
Nationality Scottish
Epistemic Position
Tradition Comparative Anthropology, Mythology, Early Social Science
Methodology Structural, Evolutionary, Symbolic
Fields Anthropology, Comparative Religion, Mythology, Folklore
Conceptual Payload
Core Concepts
Magic, Ritual, Taboo, Sympathetic Magic, Myth-Science Continuum
Associated Concepts Totem, Taboo, Symbolic, Law, Sacrifice, Oedipus complex
Key Works The Golden Bough (1890/1906/1915), Totemism and Exogamy (1910), The Fear of the Dead in Primitive Religion (1933–36)
Theoretical Cluster Symbolic Order, Ritual, Law, Taboo
Psychoanalytic Relation
Frazer’s theorization of taboo, totemism, and ritual provided the anthropological scaffolding for Freud’s conceptualization of the unconscious, the Oedipus complex, and the symbolic law. His comparative method and focus on the logic of primitive thought were foundational for psychoanalytic approaches to myth, prohibition, and the structure of desire, especially in Lacan’s reworking of the symbolic order.
To Lacan Lacan drew on Frazer’s analyses of ritual and symbolic law to theorize the function of the signifier and the Name-of-the-Father, especially in relation to prohibition and the structuring of desire.
To Freud Freud explicitly cited Frazer in Totem and Taboo and Moses and Monotheism, adopting and transforming Frazer’s accounts of totemism, taboo, and the origins of law.
Referenced By
Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Ernest Jones, Julia Kristeva
Lineage
Influences
Edward Burnett Tylor, Classical Philology, Victorian Evolutionism
Influenced
Sigmund Freud, Bronisław Malinowski, Claude Lévi-Strauss, psychoanalytic anthropology

James George Frazer (1854–1941) was a Scottish anthropologist and comparative mythologist whose monumental studies of ritual, magic, and taboo—most notably in The Golden Bough—provided a foundational framework for psychoanalytic theories of the unconscious, prohibition, and symbolic law. Frazer’s analyses of primitive thought, totemism, and the logic of taboo were directly appropriated and transformed by Sigmund Freud and later reworked by Jacques Lacan, making Frazer a pivotal figure in the conceptual genealogy of psychoanalysis.

Intellectual Context and Biography

Frazer’s intellectual trajectory unfolded at the intersection of Victorian anthropology, classical philology, and the emergent social sciences. His work exemplifies the comparative method, seeking universal structures beneath the diversity of myth and ritual.

Early Formation

Frazer was educated in the classics at the University of Glasgow and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was influenced by the philological tradition and the comparative study of religion.[1] The intellectual climate of late nineteenth-century Britain, marked by the works of E.B. Tylor and the evolutionary paradigm, shaped Frazer’s orientation toward the origins and development of human belief systems.[2]

Major Turning Points

Frazer’s publication of The Golden Bough in 1890 marked a decisive intervention in the study of myth and ritual, proposing that human societies progress from magical to religious to scientific modes of thought.[3] His subsequent works, including Totemism and Exogamy (1910), elaborated on the structures of kinship, taboo, and the symbolic function of ritual, themes that would resonate deeply within psychoanalytic theory.[4]

Core Concepts

Frazer’s theoretical contributions revolve around several interlinked concepts that became central to psychoanalytic discourse.

Magic and the Logic of Primitive Thought

Frazer distinguished between magic, religion, and science as successive stages in the evolution of human thought.[5] Magic, for Frazer, is governed by the principles of similarity (homeopathic magic) and contagion (contagious magic), reflecting a logic of association that anticipates psychoanalytic accounts of displacement and condensation.[5] This structure of magical thinking—where symbolic acts are believed to produce real effects—provided Freud with a model for understanding the mechanisms of the unconscious.[6]

Ritual and the Symbolic Order

Frazer’s analysis of ritual emphasized its function in mediating the relationship between the individual and the social order.[5] Rituals, especially those surrounding death, fertility, and kingship, were seen as symbolic enactments of collective anxieties and desires. This focus on the symbolic dimension of ritual prefigured psychoanalytic explorations of the symbolic order, prohibition, and the structuring of desire.[7]

Taboo and the Law

Frazer’s account of taboo—prohibitions that are simultaneously sacred and dangerous—became a cornerstone for Freud’s theorization of the origins of law, guilt, and the superego.[8] Frazer traced the logic of taboo from “primitive” societies to the persistence of irrational prohibitions in modernity, highlighting the ambivalence of desire and prohibition that psychoanalysis would elaborate as the structure of the unconscious.[9]

Totemism and Social Structure

In Totemism and Exogamy, Frazer analyzed the symbolic function of the totem as a mediator of kinship, law, and collective identity.[10] The totem, as both a symbolic ancestor and a focus of prohibition, provided Freud with the anthropological material for theorizing the Oedipus complex and the origins of the symbolic law.[11]

Relation to Psychoanalysis

Frazer’s influence on psychoanalysis is both direct and structural, shaping the conceptual architecture of Freud’s and Lacan’s theories.

Freud’s Engagement with Frazer

Freud’s Totem and Taboo is explicitly indebted to Frazer’s analyses of totemism, taboo, and the symbolic function of ritual.[12] Freud adopted Frazer’s account of the totemic meal and the ambivalence of taboo, transforming them into the psychoanalytic concepts of the Oedipus complex, the primal father, and the origins of law and guilt.[13] Frazer’s comparative method and his insistence on the persistence of “primitive” logics in modern societies provided Freud with a model for tracing the unconscious continuities between so-called primitive and civilized mental life.[14]

Lacan’s Structural Reworking

Jacques Lacan, while critical of Frazer’s evolutionary assumptions, drew on Frazer’s analyses of ritual and symbolic law to theorize the function of the signifier and the Name-of-the-Father.[15] Lacan’s account of the symbolic order, prohibition, and the structuring of desire is indebted to Frazer’s demonstration of how rituals and taboos inscribe the subject within a network of symbolic relations.[16] The mediation of Frazer’s influence through structural anthropology (notably Claude Lévi-Strauss) further reinforced the centrality of symbolic structures in psychoanalytic theory.[17]

Mediated and Structural Influence

Frazer’s impact on psychoanalysis was also mediated by the broader field of anthropology and the reception of his work by figures such as Bronisław Malinowski and Claude Lévi-Strauss.[18] The structuralist turn in anthropology, which emphasized the logic of symbolic systems over evolutionary narratives, reinterpreted Frazer’s findings and fed back into psychoanalytic theory, especially in Lacan’s later work.[19]

Reception in Psychoanalytic Theory

Frazer’s legacy in psychoanalysis has been the subject of both affirmation and critique. Freud’s appropriation of Frazer was foundational for the psychoanalytic understanding of myth, ritual, and the origins of law.[20] Later analysts, including Ernest Jones and Géza Róheim, extended Frazerian themes in the psychoanalytic study of culture and religion.[21]

Lacan’s engagement with Frazer was more ambivalent, marked by both reliance on Frazer’s analyses of symbolic law and a critical distance from his evolutionary framework.[22] Structuralist and post-structuralist theorists, such as Claude Lévi-Strauss and Julia Kristeva, further reworked Frazerian motifs in their accounts of symbolic systems, abjection, and the logic of prohibition.[23]

Contemporary theorists, including Slavoj Žižek and Alain Badiou, have revisited Frazer’s insights into ritual and symbolic law in their own rearticulations of psychoanalytic theory.[24]

Key Works

  • The Golden Bough (1890; revised 1906, 1915): Frazer’s magnum opus, tracing the comparative logic of myth, magic, and ritual across cultures. Its analysis of taboo, sacrifice, and the dying god provided the anthropological foundation for Freud’s and Lacan’s theories of prohibition and the symbolic order.
  • Totemism and Exogamy (1910): A four-volume study of kinship, totemic systems, and the symbolic function of the totem. This work directly influenced Freud’s theorization of the Oedipus complex and the origins of law.
  • The Fear of the Dead in Primitive Religion (1933–36): Explores the role of ancestor worship, taboo, and the ambivalence of the sacred, themes central to psychoanalytic accounts of the uncanny and the return of the repressed.
  • Folk-Lore in the Old Testament (1918): Comparative analysis of biblical narratives and their mythological antecedents, informing psychoanalytic readings of religious texts and the persistence of archaic motifs.

Influence and Legacy

Frazer’s impact on psychoanalysis is both foundational and enduring. His comparative method and theorization of taboo, ritual, and symbolic law provided the scaffolding for Freud’s and Lacan’s accounts of the unconscious, the Oedipus complex, and the symbolic order.[25] Frazer’s influence extended beyond psychoanalysis to anthropology, religious studies, and structuralism, shaping the conceptual vocabulary of twentieth-century theory.[26] While later anthropologists critiqued Frazer’s evolutionary assumptions, his insights into the logic of symbolic systems and the persistence of “primitive” thought in modernity remain central to psychoanalytic and critical theory.[27]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Robert Ackerman, J.G. Frazer: His Life and Work (Cambridge University Press, 1987).
  2. ↑ Mary Beard, "Frazer, Leach, and Virgil: The Popularity (and Unpopularity) of the Golden Bough," in Comparative Studies in Society and History 34:2 (1992).
  3. ↑ James George Frazer, The Golden Bough (1890; revised 1906, 1915).
  4. ↑ Robert Fraser, The Making of The Golden Bough: The Origins and Growth of an Argument (Macmillan, 1990).
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 James George Frazer, The Golden Bough (1890; revised 1906, 1915).
  6. ↑ Sigmund Freud, Totem and Taboo (1913).
  7. ↑ Claude Lévi-Strauss, The Savage Mind (1962).
  8. ↑ Sigmund Freud, Totem and Taboo (1913).
  9. ↑ Julia Kristeva, Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection (1980).
  10. ↑ James George Frazer, Totemism and Exogamy (1910).
  11. ↑ Sigmund Freud, Totem and Taboo (1913).
  12. ↑ Sigmund Freud, Totem and Taboo (1913).
  13. ↑ Peter Gay, Freud: A Life for Our Time (1988).
  14. ↑ Sigmund Freud, Moses and Monotheism (1939).
  15. ↑ Jacques Lacan, The Seminar, Book VII: The Ethics of Psychoanalysis (1959–60).
  16. ↑ Élisabeth Roudinesco, Jacques Lacan (1997).
  17. ↑ Claude Lévi-Strauss, The Elementary Structures of Kinship (1949).
  18. ↑ Adam Kuper, The Invention of Primitive Society (1988).
  19. ↑ Claude Lévi-Strauss, Structural Anthropology (1958).
  20. ↑ Sigmund Freud, Totem and Taboo (1913).
  21. ↑ Ernest Jones, Essays in Applied Psycho-Analysis (1951).
  22. ↑ Jacques Lacan, The Seminar, Book VII: The Ethics of Psychoanalysis (1959–60).
  23. ↑ Julia Kristeva, Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection (1980).
  24. ↑ Slavoj Žižek, The Fragile Absolute (2000).
  25. ↑ Sigmund Freud, Totem and Taboo (1913).
  26. ↑ Claude Lévi-Strauss, The Savage Mind (1962).
  27. ↑ Adam Kuper, The Invention of Primitive Society (1988).
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