![sir james frazer sir james frazer](https://s1.nyt.com/timesmachine/pages/1/1937/03/28/96735771_360W.png)
We will explore these in a later installment. Frazer devotes an entire chapter to the worship of trees, another to the influence of tree-spirits. Frazer (1854-1941) mounted this comprehensive study of human and natural history. When you consider our current reliance upon technology, it’s easy to forget that our dependence upon nature used to be more pervasive, and at times even desperate.Īlthough not trained as a botanist, James G. Labyrinthine and universal in scope, the Bough explores society’s relationship with its natural environment, and how cycles of nature are reflected in human ceremony and tradition. Scottish social anthropologist Sir James George Frazer’s classic work, The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion, is an extraordinary work on the fundamentals of natural history. The study of plant lore is beneficial in stimulating our imaginations by seeking plant-human connections throughout history.
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Economy, utility, and sustainability factor into human-horticultural application, but there are equal measures of superstition and tradition thrown into the mix. Mutually dependent and beneficial (or toxic) relationships between plants and humans have existed for millennia. Advances in agriculture and horticulture had an obvious impact on human development, but to study the mythology of a plant in addition to its taxonomy, characteristics, and habitat can bring about enriched layers of understanding. Historical evidence indicates that humankind has sought to divine meaning from the natural world, often by explaining its origins through mythology and folktales. Plant Folklore is a specialized, interdisciplinary field of study. Like the snake in the foreground, they hint at death and the mysteries of the Underworld, amidst the beauty of the landscape. Turner shows the Sibyl holding a sickle and the freshly cut bough,in front of Lake Avernus, the legendary gateway to the Underworld. She tells him he can only enter the Underworld to meet the ghost of his father if he offers Proserpine a golden bough cut from a sacred tree. The Trojan hero, Aeneas, has come to Cumae to consult the Sibyl, a prophetess. This subject comes from Virgil’s poem, The Aeneid. The Golden Bough, Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), Exhibited 1834.