The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 01 of 12)

A wide-ranging comparative study examines magic, religion, and ritual worldwide to trace how belief systems originate and transform. It analyzes sacred kingship and the ritualized death and renewal of divine or royal figures, linking myths of dying-and-rising deities to ceremonial practice. The text surveys taboos, sympathetic magic, and diverse rites, drawing parallels across Mediterranean, European, Asian, African, and Oceanic materials. Relying on folklore, ethnography, myth, and classical accounts, it proposes an evolutionary movement from magical practices toward organized religion. The author also discusses methodological limits and urges caution when inferring prehistoric beliefs from scattered, fragmentary evidence.