Join us on a literary world trip!
Add this book to bookshelf
Grey
Write a new comment Default profile 50px
Grey
Subscribe to read the full book or read the first pages for free!
All characters reduced
The Golden Bough - Complete Edition - cover

The Golden Bough - Complete Edition

George James Frazer

Publisher: Sanzani

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

Summary

For some time I have been preparing a general work on primitive superstition and religion. Among the problems which had attracted my attention was the hitherto unexplained rule of the Arician priesthood; and last spring it happened that in the course of my reading I came across some facts which, combined with others I had noted before, suggested an explanation of the rule in question. As the explanation, if correct, promised to throw light on some obscure features of primitive religion, I resolved to develop it fully, and, detaching it from my general work, to issue it as a separate study. This book is the result.

Now that the theory, which necessarily presented itself to me at first in outline, has been worked out in detail, I cannot but feel that in some places I may have pushed it too far. If this should prove to have been the case, I will readily acknowledge and retract my error as soon as it is brought home to me. Meantime my essay may serve its purpose as a first attempt to solve a difficult problem, and to bring a variety of scattered facts into some sort of order and system.
Available since: 11/02/2022.

Other books that might interest you

  • Social Contract The - Jacques Rosseau - cover

    Social Contract The - Jacques...

    Jean-Jacques Rosseau

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    The Social Contract  is a 1762 French-language book by the Genevan philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The book theorizes about the best way to establish a political community in the face of the problems of commercial society, which Rousseau had already identified in his Discourse on Inequality (1755). 
    The Social Contract helped inspire political reforms or revolutions in Europe, especially in France. The Social Contract argued against the idea that monarchs were divinely empowered to legislate. Rousseau asserts that only the people, who are sovereign, have that all-powerful right.
    Show book
  • Anxiety - A Philosophical Guide - cover

    Anxiety - A Philosophical Guide

    Samir Chopra

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    Today, anxiety is usually thought of as a pathology, the most diagnosed and medicated of all psychological disorders. But anxiety isn't always or only a medical condition. Indeed, many philosophers argue that anxiety is a normal, even essential, part of being human, and that coming to terms with this fact is potentially transformative. In Anxiety, Samir Chopra explores valuable insights about anxiety offered by ancient and modern philosophies. Blending memoir and philosophy, he also tells how serious anxiety has affected his own life—and how philosophy has helped him cope with it. 
     
     
     
    Chopra shows that many philosophers have viewed anxiety as an inevitable human response to existence: to be is to be anxious. Drawing on Karl Marx and Herbert Marcuse, Chopra examines how poverty and other material conditions can make anxiety worse, but he emphasizes that not even the rich can escape it. Nor can the medicated. Inseparable from the human condition, anxiety is indispensable for grasping it. Philosophy may not be able to cure anxiety but, by leading us to greater self-knowledge and self-acceptance, it may be able to make us less anxious about being anxious. 
     
     
     
    Personal, poignant, and hopeful, Anxiety is a book for anyone who is curious about rethinking anxiety and learning why it might be a source not only of suffering but of insight.
    Show book
  • Is It Racist? Is It Sexist? - Why Red and Blue White People Disagree and How to Decide in the Gray Areas - cover

    Is It Racist? Is It Sexist? -...

    Betsy Leondar-Wright, Jessi Streib

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    Is It Racist? Is It Sexist? Two questions that seem simple on their face, but which invite a host of tangled responses. Jessi Streib and Betsy Leondar-Wright offer a new way of understanding how inequalities persist by focusing on the individual judgment calls that lead us to decide what's racist, what's sexist, and what's not. 
     
     
     
    Racism and sexism often seem like optical illusions, but the lines that most consistently divide our decisions might surprise you. Indeed, white people's views of what's racist and sexist are increasingly up for grabs. As the largest racial group in the country and the group that occupies the most and the highest positions of power, what they decide is racist and sexist helps determine the contours of inequality. 
     
     
     
    By asking white people—Southerners and Northerners, Republicans and Democrats, working-class and professional-middle-class, men and women—to decide whether specific interactions and institutions are racist, sexist, or not, Streib and Leondar-Wright take us on a journey through the decision-making processes of white people in America. The authors are able to distinguish the responses as being characteristic of different patterns of reasoning. They produce a framework for understanding these patterns that invites us all to engage with each other in a new way, even on topics that might divide us.
    Show book
  • Beyond Welcome - Centering Immigrants in Our Christian Response to Immigration - cover

    Beyond Welcome - Centering...

    Karen González

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    Many American Christians have good intentions, working hard to welcome immigrants with hospitality and solidarity. But how can we do that in a way that empowers our immigrant neighbors rather than pushing them to the fringes of white-dominant culture and keeping them as outsiders? That's exactly the question Karen González explores in Beyond Welcome. 
     
     
     
    A Guatemalan immigrant, González draws from the Bible and her own experiences to examine why the traditional approach to immigration ministries and activism is at best incomplete and at worst harmful. By advocating for putting immigrants in the center of the conversation, González helps listeners grow in discipleship and recognize themselves in their immigrant neighbors. 
     
     
     
    Accessible to any Christian who is called to serve immigrants, this book equips listeners to take action to dismantle white supremacy and xenophobia in the church. They will emerge with new insight into our shared humanity and need for belonging and liberation.
    Show book
  • Being Really Confused - A Guide to Heidegger and Other Crimes Against Clarity - cover

    Being Really Confused - A Guide...

    Sophia Blackwell

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    Ever opened Being and Time and wondered if your brain had a stroke? 
    Ever wanted to understand Heidegger, but all you got was a migraine and a vague sense of personal failure? 
    This is the book for you. 
    Being Really Confused is the hilariously brutal, no-holds-barred, sarcasm-soaked guide to Martin Heidegger’s philosophical fever dream. Whether you’re a burned-out philosophy major, a curious masochist, or someone who just wants to sound terrifyingly deep at brunch, this book unpacks the most infamously unreadable thinker of the 20th century—with jokes, rants, and zero patience for pretension. 
    Inside, you'll find: 
    What “Dasein” actually means (spoiler: it’s just you, but anxious) 
    How to ruin conversations with phrases like “Being-toward-death” 
    Why “the they” is probably responsible for your haircut 
    And how to survive Being and Time without filing a lawsuit against your own brain 
    Equal parts roast and revelation, this book doesn’t just explain Heidegger—it drags him, hugs him, then drags him again. 
    Read it if: 
    You want to laugh at existential dread 
    You love philosophy but hate suffering 
    You’ve been pretending to understand Heidegger and want to finally maybe mean it 
    Warning: May cause spontaneous existential crises, unbearable smugness, and the urge to buy a black turtleneck.
    Show book
  • So Sorry for Your Loss - How I Learned to Live with Grief and Other Grave Concerns - cover

    So Sorry for Your Loss - How I...

    Dina Gachman

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    A searching, heartfelt exploration about what it means to process grief, by a bestselling author and journalist who experienced two devastating losses.  Since losing her mother to cancer in 2018 and her sister to alcoholism three years later, author and journalist Dina Gachman has dedicated herself to understanding what it means to grieve, how to live with loss, and the ways we stay connected to those we miss. Through a mix of personal storytelling, reporting, and insight from experts, Gachman gives readers a fresh take on grief—whether the loss is a family member, beloved pet, or a romantic relationship. No one wants to join the grief club, since membership comes with zero perks, but So Sorry for Your Loss will make that initiation just a little less painful.
    Show book