• The Fads the Drive Us: From Frazer, Freud, and Foucault to Butler and Connell 

  Budin, Stephanie Lynn (New Age Movements, Occultism, and Spiritualism Research Library, 2023-02-12)

  This presentation is a look at the various fads that have driven and skewed research in the Humanities in the past century, with a particular focus on how these fads have affected the study of human sexuality. Each case ...
• Tree lore in the Anthropocene - The Order of Bards Ovates and Druids as Oak Seers in Times of Ecological Crisis 

  Brussman, Ive (New Age Movements, Occultism, and Spiritualism Research Library, 2023-02-12)

  In The Golden Bough Sir James Frazer gives attention to various forms of worshiping of trees and tree spirits − a phenomenon that has prevailed throughout history, in magic, religion, mythology and folklore to the present. ...
• Rejecting the Embrace of the Goddess? Minoan Archaeology and the Divine Feminine 

  Morris, Christine (Prudence Priest Collection of the New Age Movements, Occultism, and Spiritualism Research Library, 2023-02-11)

  This paper is a point of departure from the Cretan Bronze Age ideas about Minoan female divinity strongly shaped by Sir Arthur Evans, excavator of the palace of Knossos. Evans, in turn, was influenced by contemporaries ...
• "Hypothesis as Theory: The Obstinate Nostrums in Biblical Studies and the Humanities 

  Chester (Biblical scholar), Ryan (New Age Movements, Occultism, and Spiritualism Research Library, 2023-02-11)

  The idea of religious studies and religion convenes at the intersection of anachronism, pragmatism, and the non sequitur. The religious concept itself, although sanctioned with formal authority, is nonetheless premised on ...
• The "Resurrection" of Frazer's Dying Gods in the Ancient Mediterranean Mythology. A Fresh Take on the Divine Death and Resurrection Through Comparison: The Case of Baal, Inanna/Ishtar and Dionysus 

  Corrente, Paola (New Age Movements, Occultism, and Spiritualism Research Library, 2023-02-11)

  In this presentation, Correntel discusses the myths of Inanna/Ishtar's, Baal's and Dionysus's death and resurrection in a comparative perspective, moving from textual evidence. He also addresses the major critical points ...
• Sexual Agency of Ishtar in Akkadian Love Literature 

  Nissinen, Martti (New Age Movements, Occultism, and Spiritualism Research Library, 2023-02-11)

  First Keynote Speaker. The goddess Ištar has multiple gendered agencies in Mesopotamian texts. She features as a lover, mother, daughter, as well as an independent sexual agent who is capable of transgressing gender ...
• Popular Frazerism and Re-enchantment 

  Testa, Alessandro (New Age Movements, Occultism, and Spiritualism Research Library, 2023-02-10)

  The talk will start with a brief overview of the historiography of Frazer's impactful, everlasting legacy in European academic, literary, and pop cultures. It will then focus on one, specific new paradigm, "Popular Frazerism", ...
• The Golden Bough and the Press 

  Phillips, Julia (New Age Movements, Occultism, and Spiritualism Research Library, 2023-02-10)

  Part of the appeal for Frazer's work – both academic and populist – was that the Victorian age introduced ideas about evolution, and especially the concept of ‘New Imperialism' and authoritative rationalism, which placed ...
• Sir James Frazer 

  Hutton, Ronald (New Age Movements, Occultism, and Spiritualism Research Library, 2023-02-10)

  The author of the Golden Bough was as remarkable as his book, in his professional career, personal life, and political, social and religious attitudes; and these things all deeply informed his approach to scholarship. This ...
• Frazerian Survivals: Contemporary Witchcraft and The Golden Bough 

  Cornish, Helen (New Age Movements, Occultism, and Spiritualism Research Library, 2023-02-12)

  This ethnographic paper traces how remnants of Frazer’s The Golden Bough are navigated amongst twenty-first century witches as they orient contemporary practices towards the past. Additional Authors: Shaking the Tree, ...
• Same but Different: Frazer’s Sympathetic Law of Similarity and the Greco-Roman defixiones 

  Moorees, Saskia (New Age Movements, Occultism, and Spiritualism Research Library, 2023-02-12)

  Frazer’s typology of ‘sympathetic magic’ proved especially popular in the study of ancient magic after it appeared in The Golden Bough. Frazer’s Law of Similarity, in particular, was predicated on the idea that according ...
• From there to here and back again: Evan's Great Goddess, Frazer's Dying King and Mary Renault's popular fiction 

  Tittl, Larissa (New Age Movements, Occultism, and Spiritualism Research Library, 2023-02-12)

  This paper will explore how Frazer’s dying god and sacrificial king are taken up and reimagined in The King must Die, by twentieth century novelist Mary Renault. A pathway from Frazer’s dying god and sacrificed king to ...
• Reading about Nymphs and Roman Soldiers with and without Frazer 

  Köster, Isabel (New Age Movements, Occultism, and Spiritualism Research Library, 2023-02-11)

  This talk explores the usefulness and pitfalls of using Frazer’s theories to interpret inscriptions that refer to dedications made by (or on behalf of) Roman soldiers to nymphs. Starting with an overview in The Golden ...
• Guess Who’s Back? Graeber and Wengrow’s Resurrection of Matristic Minoans in 'The Dawn of Everything' 

  O'Brien, Stephen (New Age Movements, Occultism, and Spiritualism Research Library, 2023-02-11)

  In 2021 David Graeber and David Wengrow released their book The Dawn of Everything: A new history of humanity to acclaim in the popular media and bestseller status in several countries. Anthropologists and Archaeologists ...
• The Hebrew Bible Scapegoat: Complicating a Frazerian Typology 

  Smith, Caroline (New Age Movements, Occultism, and Spiritualism Research Library, 2023-02-11)

  Although now methodologically outdated, The Golden Bough is credited with making decisive the scapegoat’s meaning as the innocent surrogate victim who is blamed and punished for the deeds of others. This victim’s namesake, ...
• The Perils of Othering and Brothering: Some Thoughts on Dying Gods in Ancient Mesopotamia 

  Scurlock, JoAnne (Prudence Priest Collection of the New Age Movements, Occultism, and Spiritualism Research Library, 2023-02-11)

  The Frazerian Fertility Cult is the mirror image of a culture that is at the same time sex-obsessed and deeply uncomfortable on the subject. From earliest times in ancient Mesopotamia, overpopulation was a serious concern ...
• The Legacy of The Golden Bough in the Interpretation of Early Sumerian Myth: The Case of Ninsumun and Lugalbanda 

  Linder, Nadia (New Age Movements, Occultism, and Spiritualism Research Library, 2023-02-11)

  Many tenets first formulated by Sir James Frazer in his magnum opus The Golden Bough still survive to this day in discussions of ancient Mesopotamian cult, myth, and religion. As a case study for the still pernicious ...
• Much as I Owe to Mannhardt…:. Wald- und Feldkulte at the Roots of The Golden Bough 

  Rosa, Frederico Delgado (New Age Movements, Occultism, and Spiritualism Research Library, 2023-02-10)

  Wilhelm Mannhardt (1831-1880) is an excluded ancestor par excellence. Never translated, seldom read, his work is only mentioned in passing, as a source of data for The Golden Bough. Despite James Frazer acknowledging his ...
• Welcome to the Conference 

  Parkin, Tim G. (New Age Movements, Occultism, and Spiritualism Research Library, 2023-02-10)

  Dr. Tim Parkin, The Tatoulis Chair In Classics, Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne opens the conference with a welcome and a brief overview of Frazer's importance. Additional Authors: ...
• Gold is the New Black: Race, the Academic Study of Religion, and The Golden Bough 

  Zwissler, Laurel (New Age Movements, Occultism, and Spiritualism Research Library, 2023-02-12)

  This project investigates Frazer’s influence within both the academic study of religion and new religious movements, such as contemporary Paganism and New Age, with focus on his deployment of religion to code cultural ...

View more