James George Frazer, Maruthoor Purushothaman, Translator
The abridged edition of The Golden Bough contains four books, each of which contains a varying number of chapters. Many of the chapters contain subchapters that were longer sections in the original work. The book follows a single line of argument, which includes a series of comparisons between ancient and Christian religious rituals, a discussion of nature and crops as symbols of fertility, and the retelling of myths that involve the killing of priest-kings across various cultures. These elements coalesce in the conclusion that all cultures require real or symbolic sacrifices to secure their continued existence and confirm their belief that they can influence the world through either magic or science. The book uses the symbol of the golden bough, which is a branch of mistletoe picked from an oak tree, to unify the argument because it appears in a variety of cultural myths that symbolize the union of life and death.
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