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Ritual, Sexuality and Morality by James Frazer The Golden Bough is a study on world mythology and religion, written by Scottish anthropologist Sir James George Frazer, who lived a long life (1854 - 1941) and left numerous works on various aspects connected to ethnography and history of religion. The Golden Bough is considered to be the greatest achievement of this outstanding author. This is a stunning large-scale work. It is difficult even to give an example of something reminding this book in the world literature. Unfortunately, The Golden Bough does not occupy shelves of each and every literature and science devotee. Robert Temple in The Suppressed Introduction to The Illustrated Golden Bough notices: The Golden Bough is one of those classics which barely anyone reads, but which everyone agrees to revere. Filling thirteen volumes, this lifetime labor of Sir James Frazer is simply too much for most people to cope with. (Temple 1996) Further, he adds: His work had an influence on world culture far exceeding the number of readers of his books. The book, beyond any doubt, from the very beginning confuses the ordinary reader with being so fundamental and based on the scientific approach. It can be assumed that the book would be difficult to read because of remarkably rich and diverse information. Each page is literally supersaturated with facts: some of them are surprising, and some of them are really shocking. It is more appropriate to work with The Golden Bough rather than take it for light reading. Nevertheless, this book is in no way able to tire anybody. As a matter of fact, even a person, who is not acquainted with the depths of anthropology, will find it interesting to read all the volumes of The Golden Bough. Everyone, who

2 manages to do it, is not going to lose this time in vain. Frazers work provides an opportunity to understand not only the past but also the present, the roots of which are hidden in the distant past, better. It cannot be denied that this is a book for all times. In addition, it gives an endless supply of topics for discussion and thought. Frazer starts with a question of why it was essential for the worship of Diana at Nemi, which was in ancient Italy, to kill his predecessor, after breaking a bough, a golden bough actually, from a tree growing nearby. Having started so, the author wrote a truly encyclopedic study, revealing the problem of the origin of religion itself and at the same time tried to determine the origin of royal power in ancient times. Keeping in focus the main theme of his work constantly, Frazer considers and often solves many complex scientific issues. Some of them have only an indirect relation to the original problem. These include questions about the meaning of religious and magical fire, the customs associated with age initiation, especially of females, the relationship between myth and ritual, the sacrifice, and totem. In each case, the author tries, of course, to justify the need to expand basic scientific topics, the inclusion in the study of new and emerging issues. Basing on the scheme magic-religion-science, Frazer in "The Golden Bough" begins to unwind an endless clue of narration about different beliefs, rituals, taboos, etc. They all are related to each other and intended to explain certain details in the mysterious ritual and ultimately the ritual as a whole. That is why a ritual - any ritual, as a matter of fact - is the centre of Frazers narration. There are numerous examples of faith in mutual magical link between natural phenomena. One of the essential aspects of the whole Frazers concept is the idea that by this faith of the savage in magical abilities of sorcerers they reach influential positions in a tribe, and eventually become chiefs, kings, etc. According to Frazer, this is the early history of the royal power.

3 The book contains a vast amount of material taken from everyday life, customs and beliefs of different people from all the parts of the Earth as well as cultures of the past and culture of 19th century. The Golden Bough, resembling a giant mosaic which includes beliefs of all times, forms up the impression of pagan religion in readers minds, representing it as a set of a great number of popular superstitions. The work covers a wide range of countries, including Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America. One can also learn about reasons for various taboos, totems, tree worship, sacrifice, and many other aspects. In extraordinary fine manner of narration the author describes the common creativity that the man and the nature both posses, as well as an eager desire not only to survive in difficult life conditions, but also to diversify and to decorate ones being. Frazer shows that the ancient religion was created not out of peoples fear of nature, but admiring and worshiping it, the desire to become both a part a replica of it, and the craving to win in a creative competition between the human imagination and natural elements. Therefore, science, art and philosophy were born because of paganism According to the author, the fear of nature and gods had nothing to give birth to. Initially, Frazer thought that the study of issues under consideration in the book would take a little time. However, he was forced to learn a lot of myths of different nations of the world in order to understand cults and write his fundamental work. It took a quarter of a century, and after all resulted in a multi-volume work. (Ackerman 1987) The impact of this book seems to be overwhelming. It has influenced numerous anthropologists and psychologists. However, it has reflected in literature greatly. There is no other reason for this but the fact that Frazer in his work touches upon the aspects tremendously important for humanity, among which there are ones essential to this work: ritual, sexuality and morality. The Golden Bough provides a reader with an opportunity to

4 look origins of humanity, to understand principles of philosophy, from which we have come, and sometimes even to find those in ourselves. It is amazing how lively these archaic structures of consciousness are. The forms they may take, after ages of losing their original meaning are really astonishing. As mentioned above, many of our superstitions and seemingly absurd rituals get clear after the book is read. It also gets obvious that if it seems that there is no any logic in something, it does not mean it is really so. This means only that there is just another type of logic. Part of a belief in the scientific and progressive nature of the modern European civilization is a common understanding of its antipodes, which are unscientific, false views from the past. We may presuppose that we have gone far away from them. To us, it is so difficult to believe in a slightest possibility of such absurd ideas and wild customs based on them, unless we are given some rational explanations that justify such beliefs and practices. Frazer in his valuable work is trying to build a rational explanation of this kind. He argues that a magical ideology is similar to a scientific one. By this he means that fundamental assumption of magic corresponds with basic ontological assumptions of science. At the heart of both magic and science, in his view, there is an acknowledgment of the order and consistency of nature. Consequently, the sequence of natural events can be predicted and managed. As a result of such a rational explanation of both magic and mythology turn out to be an embodiment of the theory of natural phenomena. In terms of the author, rites and rituals serve as a kind of technology generated by theories about the world created by people. Various rituals take the crucial place in Frazers work, with plenty of descriptions and interpretations of them. In fact it may be considered to be the most thorough work on the relationships between ritual, folklore, myth and religion.

5 Ritual is the oldest form of transmission of cultural values and meanings, and familiarizing the individual to the cultural background. All the important and critical events in the life of a primitive collective and its individual members were not just accompanied by some rituals, but were gone through with the help of rites. Among them, there were the start and the end of seasons, which are significant milestones of an agricultural cycle; sowing; harvesting; ; the birth; the transition of a teenager in a group of adults; marriages; deaths. Rituals helped a society resist drought or disease, live through dangerous and difficult days, etc. Any omens, superstitions and traditional habits, such as touching wood, for example, known today are supported by historical justifications in The Golden Bough. Besides, household superstitions constantly interspersed with tales of ancient war and political rites, such as the fact that the Tatars thought of the Khans bloodshed as of something obscene; and therefore they invented ways of bloodless murder - such as rolling up a living person in a carpet. All this is connected by a perfectly logical chain of fascinating reflections and generalizations. A ritual can be described as a collective action that has symbolic significance, where sacred meaning is clear to members of a particular society. This action, which reflects social and biological criteria important to a society, requires special techniques. For example, the author describes in detail lifestyles and rites of many tribes. Some of these descriptions may make one both laugh and cry. For example, the one where a native tribe of Madagascar used to eat nail clippings of their Chief, in order to prevent evil sorcerers from having them. In the ancient religions a ritual was the main expression of the cult of a higher power, inckuding worshiping, adoration, sacrifices, etc. As mentioned above, the main topics of ancient rituals are the creation of the cosmos (world order) out of chaos; the natural cycle of life and death; winter and summer; day and night. However, the majority of them are

6 associated with death as the end, and at the same time, the continuation of life. Many of these rituals are described in The Golden Bough. For example, Russian ceremonies celebrating the death of the spirit of vegetation at midsummer in praise of Kostrubonko. The author presupposes that they were connected to the decline of the summer. According to Frazer, a ritual is a collective action, often repeating a sacred act of a mythological subject, which has a special meaning. Through rituals, people felt their close connection with nature. Additionally, most of rituals undertaken in a traditional society allowed a person to feel an intimate connection that joins people with society, and a relationship between society and nature. Among these rituals are, above all, calendar rituals associated with the phenomena of nature. All these phenomena took an important place in mythological minds of the savage comparing the rhythms of their lives to these events. A man took an active part in the life of nature, and was convinced that his indifference may cause catastrophic consequences. This gave universal sense to ritual ceremonies. Rituals of this kind are depicted by Frazer in the chapters about the ritual of Adonis, the ritual of Attis and the ritual of Osiris. The latter even had two versions: a popular one and an official one. It becomes evident from these chapters that the main themes of rituals and ancient myths are present in all the rituals associated with the life cycle and the agricultural activities of people; however, sometimes in a transformed way. Psychological basis of this transfer was resemblance that in mythological consciousness merges with identification. Frazer states that the majority of modern rituals are rooted in the distant idolized past, repeating things that have already happened once. Ancient rituals are closely related to myths telling about early periods of creation of the world. People involved in a ritual, should repeat what gods once made. Therefore, according from a mythological point of view are the initial steps made by the first gods and the first people are of the greatest value.

7 Besides of enormous number of volumes in praise of Frazer's work, there are some pieces of constructive criticism. One of the most credible of them, "Remarks on Frazer's Golden Bough" by Ludwig Wittgenstein, which consists of the author's thoughts, concerns rituals among other aspects. One group of Wittgensteins concerns as for the work by Frazer contained in the notebooks written in 1930-1931. They were made in the process of Wittgensteins acquainting to The Golden Bough. The second group of notes appeared, as publishers assume, between 1936 and 1948. They were made on separate pieces of paper. Thus, these were the authors notes made for himself. There are many repetitions; and at the same time, a lot of reflections that have been obvious and understandable to Wittgenstein himself remained uncorrected. All the value and depth of Wittgensteins ideas are still not appreciated as they should be; and their content has not been processed properly. Wittgenstein starts with critiquing Frazer on his definition of the process. In compliance with him, there is no progress connected to rationality and validity of our knowledge, of our view on this world and lifestyle, and happiness. Frazer explains magic as a theory built upon laws of the external world. Wittgenstein contradicts to such explanation by defining magic as a symbolic, and therefore, much associated with language and sign phenomenon. As said above, a significant part of "Remarks ..." is dedicated to Frazer's views on rituals. When it comes to origin of the rites and rituals, and reasons for family similarities between rituals that existed in different nations, historical evolutionary explanation by Frazer is, in terms of Wittgenstein, wrong. He writes: The most noticeable thing seems to me not merely the similarities but also the differences throughout all these rites [or, rituals, of the fire festivals of Europe]. It is a wide variety of faces with common features that keeps showing in

8 one place and in another. And one would like to draw lines joining the parts that various faces have in common. (Wittgenstein 1987) In addition, he passionately criticized Frazer, arguing that his clarifications are mistaken, and some primitive rituals described in the book, could be freely invented by someone, and possibly they would have been found somewhere in the world. To majority of people Frazer view on antiquity of fire festivals, their origin and their relationship to human sacrifices may seem quite obvious. It should be noted that they are obvious before and independently from any specific archaeological and other evidence. In fact, Frazer does not present any of such evidence. The danger of this presumption, according to Wittgenstein, is that it prevents readers from asking a question about the source of the confidence in connection between the ancient ritual and human sacrifices. Wittgenstein also draws our attention to the fact that for us, modern people, the logic of this ritual perfectly understandable. It means that for us, the symbolic and ritual aspects retain their inner meaning. The same aims, Wittgenstein had in mind when remarked that we are able to come up with rituals of our own. Further, Wittgenstein adds: Frazer is much more savage than most of his savages, for they are not as far removed from the understanding of spiritual matter as a twentieth-century Englishman. His explanations of primitive practices are much cruder than the meaning of these practices themselves. (Wittgenstein 1987) In his work, Frazer notices that some of traditions were presented as magical ceremonies, i.e. in the form of dramatized performance. Therefore, he presumes that rituals are reflection of peoples ay of living. For Wittgenstein, active ritual side of magic is the main one. He states that magic is not an outlook, but a form of life, or, in other words, a form of social organization of human activity and human experience, both cognitive and emotional. Consequently, magic is not reflected in rituals; it is rituals and representation of the most sacred human believes.

9 Another major topic in Frazers work is sexuality. Nowadays, these are facts commonly acknowledged that love and sexual relationships are related to each other psychologically and physiologically, sexuality has a direct impact on peoples happiness and unhappiness. The sexual instinct is even said to be responsible for a persons achievements in science, art, literature and music. The savage described by Frazer also tended to search relations between sexuality to the other aspects of life. The most common and still existing belief concerns the connection between fertility of a woman and the one of the Earth. People struggled to keep this connection not just by means of intercourse, in terms of Frazer himself. Sometimes only separate expressions of sexuality were used. An example of them is womans nakedness. At first glance, it seems that there is nothing in common between agricultural work and nudity. Nevertheless, in some cultures it was believed that the presence of a naked woman at the time of sowing can have a favorable impact on the harvest. In other countries a naked woman was brought to the field and had to plant peas in order to guarantee its significant harvest. For a great number of societies the presence of a naked woman on the field was an event equal to a miraculous effect on the crop. On the other hand, there were those who clearly had an opposite point of view. They considered a disaster if a woman committed any actions with the main food cultures. Women were strictly forbidden to appear in gardens and fields. Often, the savage went much further. As Frazer states, in Central America some people were said to had been appointed to perform the sexual act at the very moment when the first seeds were deposited in the ground. Almost the same ritual was spread in Java: at the season when the bloom will soon be on the rice, the husbandman and his wife visit their fields by night and there engage in sexual intercourse for the purpose of promoting the growth of the crop. (Frazer 1998)

10 A great role in sphere connected with sexuality is played by sexual taboos, with which it is strongly interconnected. In general, a taboo is explained by the author as follows: THUS in primitive society the rules of ceremonial purity observed by divine kings, chiefs, and priests agree in many respects with the rules observed by homicides, mourners, women in childbed, girls at puberty, hunters and fishermen, and so on. To us these various classes of persons appear to differ totally in character and condition; some of them we should call holy, others we might pronounce unclean and polluted. But the savage makes no such moral distinction between them; the conceptions of holiness and pollution are not yet differentiated in his mind. (Frazer 1998) Sexual taboos, in particular, in our society began in the Garden of Eden. God forbade Adam under treat of death eat from a certain tree and did not really explain why he could not do that. The forbidden tree is a symbol for taboo. Historically, sexual taboos had been developing from the moment religious practices of the most primitive range were started. In Mediaeval times, for example, natural expression of sexuality was considered to be sinful, shameful and immoral. During the long history of human development, sexual taboos brought more misery than any other ones. Many of our modern laws and moral principles are still based on the primitive sexual taboos of the savage. In a decent society, as we see it today, a person still feels quite uncomfortable if forced to talk on the topic of sexuality, unless this is a matter of science, for example. Everything concerning themselves the majority of people consider to be private life and no one, of course, tend to speak about it in public. Here, it should be mentioned that sexual taboos more than any other issue related to sexuality is connected to the notion of morality. Frazer explains what meanings of many kinds of taboo. One type is rather widespread in a great number of tribes. It may be called, a sacrifice. In Central Africa, four days before

11 sowing a man stopped having relationships with his wife in order that on the night before planting they might indulge their passions to the fullest extent; certain persons are even said to have been appointed to perform the sexual act at the very moment when the first seeds were deposited in the ground. (Frazer 1998) A lot of people, mainly males, restrained their sexual propensity for the sake of food or victory in war. It may seem ridiculous; however, there are some traces of this taboo in the present. First of all, it is scientifically proved that restrained make a man more aggressive. That is why a lot of football teams still follow the rule of restraint before a match. Some of taboos forbade natural expression of sexuality of a particular gender, both male and female. The most outrageous is of course a punishment for different actions conducted by a woman in the period of menstruation. Frazer makes an example: An Australian blackfellow, who discovered that his wife had lain on his blanket at her menstrual period, killed her and died of terror himself within a fortnight. (Frazer 1998) On the other hand, men has suffered enough too, especially kings. For instance, the Shilluk people One of the fatal executed their king if he became incapable to satisfy the sexual passions of all his wives. As mentioned above, a lot of taboos were connected to morality. In New Guinea, for example, it was terribly immoral to have any kind of sexual relationships during the period of turtle coupling. Frazer was the first one to bring together all the facts relating to a taboo. He introduced sociology to the term. Among others musings on the topic of a taboo, Frazer writes if the supposed evil necessarily followed a breach of taboo, the taboo would not be a taboo but a precept of morality or common sense. (Frazer 1998) However, he did not point out how actually taboo is different from religious prohibitions in general. He only states: If the one acts from the love or fear of God, he is

12 religious; if the other acts from the love or fear of man, he is moral or immoral according as his behavior comports or conflicts with the general good. (Frazer 1998) Nonetheless Frazer stated that taboo is the basis, on which morality was created. Based on the above analysis it is possible to claim that for Frazer the scheme ritualsexuality-morality is equally important as the scheme magic-religion-science. Every element of each scheme is deeply interrelated with the previous one in the scheme. It can be sais that the next is created on the basis of the previous one. To conclude, The Golden Bough is one of fundamental works that have an enormous value for generations of scientists. Having devoted his life to folklore studies and the history of religion, James Frazer gathered a astonishing amount of factual material that allowed him to show the connection between modern religion and primitive beliefs by using the comparative historical method, and to identify the sources of religious outlook. It should be emphasized that Frazers concept confronts the church point of view on the origin and role of religion in the history of society. His work have given a modern researchers a wealth of factual material that cannot be taken from their own life experience, as many customs and rituals described in the book are now forgotten, and the majority of ethnic groups he describes disappeared. In the center of his ethnographic research there are primitive religion and philosophy, superstitions, myths, legends, rituals, and psychology of the savage ones. This relatively limited scope of research under the pen Frazer turned into a variety of topics, complex and ambiguous questions, including sexuality and morality. Each of these and many other aspects are matched by Frazer with a great number of facts, most of which are scarcely known or completely unknown before. In such a brief work as ours it is simply impossible to retell or even to list all the general and specific problems, which Frazer considers and, moreover, tries to solve.

13 Works Cited Ackerman, Robert. J. G. Frazer: His Life and Work. Cambridge University Press, 1987. Print. Fraser, Robert. The Making of The Golden Bough: The Origins and Growth of an Argument. Macmillan: 1990. Print. Frazer, James. The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Print. Temple Robert. The Suppressed Introduction to The Illustrated Golden Bough, which the publishers refused to print. 1996. Web. Wittgenstein, Ludwig. Remarks on Frazer's Golden Bough. Humanities Press,1987. Web.