Aftermath A Supplement to The Golden Bough

The Scottish social anthropologist Sir James Frazer (1854–1941) first published The Golden Bough in 1890. A seminal two-volume work (reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection), it revolutionised the study of ancient religion through comparative analysis of mythology, rituals and superstitions around the world. Following the completion in 1915 of the revised twelve-volume third edition (also available in this series), Frazer found that he had more to say and further evidence to present. Published in 1936, Aftermath was conceived as a supplement to The Golden Bough, offering his additional findings on such topics as magic, royal and priestly taboos, sacrifice, reincarnation, and all manner of supernatural beliefs spanning cultures, continents and millennia. Sealing Frazer's profound contribution to the study of religion and folklore, this work remains an important text for scholars of anthropology and the history of ideas.

Preface; 1. Magic; 2. The magical control of the weather; 3. Magicians as kings; 4. Incarnate human gods; 5. Departmental kings of nature; 6. The worship of trees; 7. Relics of tree-worship in Europe; 8. The influence of the sexes on vegetation; 9. The sacred marriage; 10. The king's fire; 11. The fire-drill; 12. Father Jove and Mother Vesta; 13. The origin of perpetual fires; 14. The succession to the kingdom in ancient Latium; 15. St George and the parilia; 16. The oak; 17. Dianus and Diana; 18. Royal and priestly taboos; 19. The perils of the soul; 20. Tabooed acts; 21. Tabooed persons; 22. Tabooed things; 23. Tabooed words; 24. The killing of the divine king; 25. The fairy wife; 26. Temporary kings; 27. Sacrifice of the king's son; 28. Killing the tree-spirit; 29. Swinging as a magical rite; 30. The myth of Adonis; 31. Consecration by anointing; 32. Reincarnation of the dead; 33. Volcanic religion; 34. The gardens of Adonis; 35. The rituals of Attis; 36. Attis as the father god; 37. On head-hunting; 38. The tears of Isis; 39. The star of Isis; 40. Feasts of all souls; 41. Mother-kin and mother goddesses; 42. Marriage of brothers with sisters; 43. Children of living parents in ritual; 44. Blind victims in sacrifice; 45. Men dressed as women; 46. Children in winnowing-fans; 47. Magical significance of games in primitive agriculture; 48. Women's part in primitive agriculture; 49. Personification of the corn-spirit at harvest; 50. Human sacrifices for the crops; 51. The corn-spirit as an animal; 52. The Pleiades in primitive agriculture; 53. A primitive form of purification; 54. The Maniae at Aricia; 55. Attempts to deceive demons; 56. The sacrifice of first-fruits; 57. Homoeopathic magic of a flesh diet; 58. The propitiation of wild animals by hunters; 59. The transmigration of human souls into animals; 60. The transference of evil; 61. The omnipresence of demons; 62. The public expulsion of evils; 63. Public scapegoats; 64. The Saturnalia and kindred festivals; 65. Not to touch the earth; 66. Not to see the sun; 67. The seclusion of girls at puberty; 68. The fire festivals of Europe; 69. Were-wolves; 70. The fire-walk; 71. The magic flowers of Midsummer Eve; 72. The external soul in folk-tales; 73. The external soul in folk-custom; 74. The ritual of death and resurrection; 75. The mistletoe; Index.