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"Frazer, James George"
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The mythology in our language : remarks on Frazer's Golden bough
In 1931 Ludwig Wittgenstein wrote his famous Remarks on Frazer’s “Golden Bough,” published posthumously in 1967. At that time, anthropology and philosophy were in close contact—continental thinkers drew heavily on anthropology’s theoretical terms, like mana, taboo, and potlatch, in order to help them explore the limits of human belief and imagination. Wittgenstein’s remarks on ritual, magic, religion, belief, ceremony, and Frazer’s own logical presuppositions are as lucid and thought-provoking now as they were in Wittgenstein’s day. Anthropologists find themselves asking many of the same questions as Wittgenstein—and in a reflection of that, this volume is fleshed out with a series of engagements with Wittgenstein’s ideas by some of the world’s leading anthropologists, including Veena Das, David Graeber, Wendy James, Heonik Kwon, Michael Lambek, Michael Puett, and Carlo Severi.
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Wittgenstein, Frazer und die \ethnologische Betrachtungsweise\
Wittgenstein wanted to adopt \"a far-distant point of view\" and look at philosophical problems from an ethnological perspective. Was his sharp confrontation with James Frazer's principal work,The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion, an exercise in such an \"ethnological point of view?\" In this study, Brusotti shows that Wittgenstein's thinking opened up new dimensions in language and cultural philosophy.
eBook
Selected letters of Sir J. G. Frazer
An edition of selected letters by (and in some cases to) Sir J. G. Frazer (1854-1941), the eminent anthropologist and historian of religion, and author of The Golden Bough. It offers an invaluable insight into British intellectual life at the turn of the century, and also illuminates the composition, and reception, of The Golden Bough itsel.
eBook
Wittgenstein's Remarks on Frazer
This volume is dedicated to Wittgenstein's remarks on Frazer's The Golden Bough and represents a collaboration of scholars within philosophy and the study of religion. For the first time, specialized investigations of the philological and philosophical aspects Wittgenstein's manuscripts are combined with the outlook of philosophical anthropology and ritual studies. In the first section of the book Wittgenstein's remarks are presented and discussed in light of his Nachlass and relevant lecture-notes by G.E. Moore, reproduced in this book as facsimiles. The second section deals with the cultural and philosophical background of the early remarks, while the third section focuses specifically on the general problem of understanding as being a main issue of these remarks. The fourth section concentrates on the philosophical development characteristic of the later remarks. Finally, the fifth section reviews Wittgenstein's opposition to Frazer, and the ramifications of his remarks, in light of ritual studies. The book is intended for scholars in philosophy and religious studies, as well as for the general reader with an academic interest in philosophy and the philosophy of religion.
eBook
I believe in water: A religious perspective on rain and rainmakers
Water has always played a significant role in religions. This contribution seeks to investigate comparatively the figure of the rainmaker as presented in Traditional African religions and biblical texts. The phenomenon of the rainmaker is at the centre of this investigation. In Traditional African religions, the rainmaker is not only a figure controlling rain but also has a substantial social standing. In biblical texts, the rainmaker (of which Samuel and Elijah can be considered as examples), functions more like a prophet without an elite social and political status. Despite the differences in the status of the rainmaker among Traditional African religions and biblical texts, both traditions make it abundantly clear that rain originates with God. God sends or withholds the rain. The figure of the rainmaker as a social leader can today contribute to instilling a sense of using water responsibly and guiding communities in considering climate action to ensure sustainable living on land and water. A sense of concern over the responsible use of water will bind communities together. In this way, water can be a binding factor and stimulating topic-enhancing interreligious dialogue. Contribution: This contribution is a comparative study of the phenomenon of the rainmaker as presented in Traditional African religions and biblical texts. It aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, number 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation); number 13 (Climate Action) and number 15 (Life on Land).
Journal Article
Selected letters of Sir J.G. Frazer
This is a fully annotated edition of selected letters by (and in some cases to) Sir J. G. Frazer (1854-1941), the eminent anthropologist, classicist, and historian of religion. Frazer was read by virtually everyone working in those fields in the first third of the twentieth century. His great work, The Golden Bough, offered a grand vision of humanity's mental and spiritual evolution - from vain attempts to compel the gods to do our bidding (which Frazer called magic) through equally vain attempts to propitiate the gods through prayer and sacrifice (his characterization of religion) to rationality and science. His richly varied correspondence with prominent figures such as Edmund Gosse, A. E. Housman, and Bronislaw Malinowski, among others, offers an unparalleled insight into British intellectual life of the time, and also throws light upon the composition of The Golden Bough itself.
eBook
Virginia Woolf and the Pyrocene
This article explores how Woolf’s writing reflects on and reimagines humanity’s relationship with fire. Drawing on the work of environmental historian Stephen J. Pyne—who in coining the term ‘Pyrocene’ places human-fire alliance at the center of the Anthropocene narrative—it argues that flame is embedded in Woolf’s modernist ecological aesthetic. My primary focus is on The Waves (1931) and The Years (1937), where fire is variously associated with storytelling and communality, reverie and ritual, bodily experience and extreme weather. In doing so, the article considers Woolf’s allusions to the fiery worlds of Dante’s Inferno, Charles Darwin’s Voyage of the Beagle, and James Frazer’s anthropological studies, as well as newspaper reports of a record-breaking heatwave and its impact on people, animals, and the environment. I suggest that to read Woolf and/in the Pyrocene is to attend to the capacious and transformative but also ambiguous and contradictory significance of her modernist fire ecologies. Rather than simply representing phases of the Pyrocene, Woolf presents her readers with pyro-scenes in which the creative potential of flame and language combine to ignite fire-centric stories.
Journal Article
Misrepresentations of African religion: Exploring the poverty of Western religious experience
The article sets out to understand the misconceptions and misrepresentations of religion in general and African religion in particular and how these fallacies have affected the latter since they entered the global scene. This also drives us to historicise religious discourses and eventually consider how its apologists and/or scholars of religion have responded since the first half of the 20th century. Have the African indigenous resources contributed positively in enriching Christianity and in building a theologia africana, and is the ‘poverty of Western Religious Experience’ the main factor that fuels the misunderstandings and falsifications? As part of the 50th commemoration of research in theology and religion, particularly through the Research Institute for Theology and Religion (RITR) at the University of South Africa (1975–2025), it strives to account for the scholarly developments that have triggered a paradigm shift, a phenomenon where the Gospel and Africa’s religio-culture are engaged in a dialogue of purpose that strives to offer authentic Christianity in Africa amid critics of such initiatives. It is conceptually informed by Cornelius Willem du Toit’s contrast between the ‘poverty of western religious experiences’ and African spirituality.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implicationsThrough its theo-historical-analytical design, this research article adds value to our knowledge of (South) African religion and the interdisciplinary world of academia by drawing its theoretical framework from the multidisciplinary works of Professor Cornel du Toit. It demonstrates RITR’s works, in the last 50 years (1975–2025), as an interdisciplinary enterprise that seeks to effectively address contemporary African concerns.
Journal Article