Psyche's Task

Book excerpt: According to Frazer, superstition may have been responsible for some terrible misunderstandings and even worse misdeeds, but in lending strength to the core institutions of government, private property, marriage, and respect for human life, superstition has played an invaluable role in the increased civility of man. "Surely it is better," he asserts, "that men should do right from wrong motives than that they should do wrong with the best intentions." A treat for students of history and social anthropology, Psyche's Task is a lively, informative defense from the author of the influential The Golden Bough. Scottish anthropologist SIR JAMES GEORGE FRAZER (1854-1941) also wrote Man, God, and Immortality (1927) and Creation and Evolution in Primitive Cosmogonies (1935).