• In total there are 2 users online :: 1 registered, 0 hidden and 1 guest (based on users active over the past 60 minutes)
    Most users ever online was 789 on Tue Mar 19, 2024 5:08 am

Obituary of James George Frazer

Engage in conversations about worldwide religions, cults, philosophy, atheism, freethought, critical thinking, and skepticism in this forum.
Forum rules
Do not promote books in this forum. Instead, promote your books in either Authors: Tell us about your FICTION book! or Authors: Tell us about your NON-FICTION book!.

All other Community Rules apply in this and all other forums.
User avatar
stahrwe

1I - PLATINUM CONTIBUTOR
pets endangered by possible book avalanche
Posts: 4898
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:26 am
14
Location: Florida
Has thanked: 166 times
Been thanked: 315 times

Obituary of James George Frazer

Unread post

The pdf viewer function does not seem to be working...see below. You must scroll down a bit.


[pdfview]http://rsbm.royalsocietypublishing.org/ ... 6.full.pdf[/pdfview]

The pdf viewer does not appear to be working.

I placed this url http://rsbm.royalsocietypublishing.org/ ... 6.full.pdf
within the pdfview codes but nothing is displayed.

[pdfview]http://rsbm.royalsocietypublishing.org/ ... 6.full.pdf[/pdfview]

Oddly, neither the attempt at the top of this post, nor the attempt just above this text worked, but, the URL itself seems to be a hyperlink even though I did not use the URL posting option.

What am I doing wrong with the pdf file link?
User avatar
LanDroid

2A - MOD & BRONZE
Comandante Literario Supreme
Posts: 2800
Joined: Sat Jul 27, 2002 9:51 am
21
Location: Cincinnati, OH
Has thanked: 195 times
Been thanked: 1166 times
United States of America

Re: Obituary of James George Frazer

Unread post

Why do you recommend that we read a 19 page obituary of James George Frazer?
User avatar
stahrwe

1I - PLATINUM CONTIBUTOR
pets endangered by possible book avalanche
Posts: 4898
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:26 am
14
Location: Florida
Has thanked: 166 times
Been thanked: 315 times

Re: Obituary of James George Frazer

Unread post

LanDroid,

First of all, I am not recommending that BT members read Frazer's obituary though I think that at least those BT members who promote his writings would be interested. I had two reasons for this post.

First, in the past I have tried to post documents to BT and was unable to do so unless I have previously incorporated them into my own website.* I have not been active on BT for quite some time and just saw the <pdfview> button so I was curious to see how it worked.

Second, I am interested in researching biographies for certain people and Mr. Frazer's was the first one I was able to find. I downloaded it into a file on my computer but also decided to link to it on BT for future reference.

So, I repeat my questions:
#1) Why doesn't the <pdfview> button work, or at least, why didn't it work for the Fazer obit?
#2) Why did the hyperlink work without using the <url>?
n=Infinity
Sum n = -1/12
n=1

where n are natural numbers.
User avatar
stahrwe

1I - PLATINUM CONTIBUTOR
pets endangered by possible book avalanche
Posts: 4898
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:26 am
14
Location: Florida
Has thanked: 166 times
Been thanked: 315 times

Re: Obituary of James George Frazer

Unread post

With further consideration, I suspect that the problem is that the pdf file for Frazer's obit. is too big and therefore nothing is being displayed.
n=Infinity
Sum n = -1/12
n=1

where n are natural numbers.
User avatar
LanDroid

2A - MOD & BRONZE
Comandante Literario Supreme
Posts: 2800
Joined: Sat Jul 27, 2002 9:51 am
21
Location: Cincinnati, OH
Has thanked: 195 times
Been thanked: 1166 times
United States of America

Re: Obituary of James George Frazer

Unread post

Hey Chris: I tested the pdf view BB tags with a random small .pdf file and, as stahrwe showed, that is not working...

stahrwe: FYI You can also attach files to a post, see example below. Please don't injure me, but I changed the thread title since Frazier isn't the main subject. (?)
Attachments
James George Frazier.pdf
Test file attachment:
(1.86 MiB) Downloaded 233 times
User avatar
stahrwe

1I - PLATINUM CONTIBUTOR
pets endangered by possible book avalanche
Posts: 4898
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:26 am
14
Location: Florida
Has thanked: 166 times
Been thanked: 315 times

Re: Obituary of James George Frazer / test pdf file viewing

Unread post

I would not injure anyone. I am a peaceful Creationist.
n=Infinity
Sum n = -1/12
n=1

where n are natural numbers.
User avatar
geo

2C - MOD & GOLD
pets endangered by possible book avalanche
Posts: 4779
Joined: Sun Aug 03, 2008 4:24 am
15
Location: NC
Has thanked: 2198 times
Been thanked: 2200 times
United States of America

Re: Obituary of James George Frazer / test pdf file viewing

Unread post

Stahrwe, thanks for the PDF link. Frazer was one of the earliest scholars of comparative mythology and his dying-and-rising god thesis in The Golden Bough is still controversial. It’s fair to say that modern scholars dispute some of Frazer’s interpretations. For example, many of Frazer’s examples of "dying and rising" gods from world mythologies are now considered "dying" but not "rising”. I believe that Jung, and later Joseph Campbell, argued that many of these death-and-resurrection motifs common to many religions are not so much passed down or evolved from older traditions, as Frazer assumed, but are universal archetypes that arise from the unconscious of individuals.

A secular reading of the Bible is never going to sit well with literalists. But clearly there are many, many common themes that are shared by all religions. Christianity should never be excluded from a comparative study.

This Wikipedia article has an overview of the dying-and-rising god motif. In particular, see Jung's examination of Osiris. Interesting stuff.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dying-and ... -Gary19f-8
-Geo
Question everything
User avatar
Chris OConnor

1A - OWNER
BookTalk.org Hall of Fame
Posts: 17016
Joined: Sun May 05, 2002 2:43 pm
21
Location: Florida
Has thanked: 3509 times
Been thanked: 1309 times
Gender:
Contact:
United States of America

Re: Obituary of James George Frazer / test pdf file viewing

Unread post

I've sent a message to David to help us figure out why the pdf button isn't currently working. On a positive note your link appears to work fine so everyone can still read that pdf. We'll get the pdfview button working soon.
User avatar
Robert Tulip

2B - MOD & SILVER
BookTalk.org Hall of Fame
Posts: 6498
Joined: Tue Oct 04, 2005 9:16 pm
18
Location: Canberra
Has thanked: 2718 times
Been thanked: 2661 times
Contact:
Australia

Re: Obituary of James George Frazer / test pdf file viewing

Unread post

geo wrote:many of Frazer’s examples of "dying and rising" gods from world mythologies are now considered "dying" but not "rising”.
Sadly, many writers on these topics have concealed religious bias, failing to consider Jesus Christ objectively within the evolution of cultural mythology. The whole question of the role of sun worship in ancient religion is essential to put the trope of dying and rising into a realistic context. The sun dies every day and every year and the sun also rises. Dying and rising gods are a collective unconscious anthropomorphisation of the observed power and glory of the sun as the universal source of light and life.
geo wrote:I believe that Jung, and later Joseph Campbell, argued that many of these death-and-resurrection motifs common to many religions are not so much passed down or evolved from older traditions, as Frazer assumed, but are universal archetypes that arise from the unconscious of individuals.
Universal archetypes arise from the unconscious of the collective, not ‘from the unconscious of individuals’. Such archetypes therefore do evolve from older traditions, such as how the story of Jesus Christ evolved from previous dying and rising gods. Religion is in a state of constant cultural evolution, with the stories that satisfied earlier generations constantly adapted for new use. As with genetic evolution, the longer the time period, the bigger the difference.
geo wrote: Christianity should never be excluded from a comparative study.
I still remember at Sunday School being taught that the story of Noah was history while the story of Zeus was a myth, and that the superiority of Christianity over myth came from its status as fact rather than fantasy. Such delusional tales are a big source of the contempt with which faith is regarded across much of the secular world. It is of the nature of a functioning myth that its acolytes consider it an objective truth. Now that Christendom is collapsing into ruins, Christianity can be assessed dispassionately alongside other beliefs, without the bigoted bullying of the literal church sitting at the shoulder of every researcher. I think the way to go is a Gnostic Reformation of Christianity, recognising its unique power and vision, which until now has mainly been seen through a glass darkly.
geo wrote: This Wikipedia article has an overview of the dying-and-rising god motif. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dying-and ... -Gary19f-8
Many thanks for the link Geo. Following the link I read a free scholarly review of Mettinger’s The Riddle of Resurrection at jstor – very illuminating debates. The review says “he musters an impressive array of evidence and argument in support of the surprising, even bold, conclusion, that contrary to popular opinion dying and rising gods such as Baal, Melqart, Adonis, and Eshman died and rose!”
geo wrote: In particular, see Jung's examination of Osiris. Interesting stuff.
My main focus at the moment is preparing a talk for the Canberra Jung Society on his book Aion – details at http://www.canberrajungsociety.org.au/ I will share a copy here.
User avatar
stahrwe

1I - PLATINUM CONTIBUTOR
pets endangered by possible book avalanche
Posts: 4898
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:26 am
14
Location: Florida
Has thanked: 166 times
Been thanked: 315 times

Re: Obituary of James George Frazer / test pdf file viewing

Unread post

Perhaps this discussion is not just about testing the <pdfview> button.

Quoting from the obituary of Jame George Frazer
One may note here the contradictory usages of the word sacre’ in French. Frazer has a characteristic sentence about this differentiation—“Thus on the Taboo were grafted the golden fruits of law and morality, while the parent stem dwindled slowly into the sour crabs and empty husks of popular superstition, on which the swine of modern society are still content to feed”.*
I find the Frazer quote interesting for several reasons:
1) His phraseology goes beyond an academic observation and is quite evocative.
2) It generates a question for me: What are sour crabs? I am familiar with the fable of the Sour Grapes, but Frazer did not say grapes. I did a quick google search and found a purported link explaining the phrase but, like many things on the internet, it did not deliver on its promise.

* The obituary is quoting from the Encyclopedia Britanica article on Taboos. I am providing two links to the google book I found when searching the phrase about sour crabs.

This is a shorter version of the other url I posted. This one should take you to the page in the EB with the quote but nothing will be highligted. The phrase is found in the upper left quadrant of the page.
books.google.com/books?id=kQwEAAAAYAAJ& ... A22&dq

This is the full search I made for the quote and will take you to the same page as the shorter link but this one will have the relevant words highligted.
books.google.com/books?id=kQwEAAAAYAAJ& ... mp;f=false
n=Infinity
Sum n = -1/12
n=1

where n are natural numbers.
Post Reply

Return to “Religion & Philosophy”