This book has been my lunchtime reading for a while now - I work in the light industrial area and there is nowhere to go for lunch. Frazer has a very readable and euphonious style, and lots of charming stories and accounts.
Unfortunately, when ever he mentioned an Australian Aboriginal belief or custom as an example of whatever he was talking about, I found myself muttering "That's not right!" and "Oh dear, he hasn't quite understood that." Which made me less inclined to trust his other anthropological examples.
A little internet research and I found several references to support my mutters, best summarised by this wikipedia quote "Parts of the book, most notably its discussion of the symbolism of magic and its elucidation of the concept of sympathetic magic, remain accepted by scholars today. The larger theme of dying and reviving gods has not fared as well in the world of anthropology and comparative religion; most contemporary anthropologists have concluded that Frazer overinterpreted his evidence to fit it into his system."
I think he is an excellent source for fantasy writers, and for reading for pleasure, but I wouldn't take him as a prime source for anything else. I am reading the abridged 1922 version, without the notes and attributions.
The Golden Bough first published 1890, abridged version 1922
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