Origin of Culture

Drawing on the work of Levi-Strauss, Malinowski, Dumezil, Van Gennep, Eliade and many others, Dr. Marsland proposes a dual/triune structure to early religion--a structure which appears to be worldwide. Marslander discusses the ideas of E.B.Tylor's PRIMITIVE CULTURE (1872); James Frazer's GOLDEN BOUGH (1890): the work of the Cambridge Ritualists, such as Jane Harrison's THEMIS (1912) and F.M.Cornford's ORIGINS OF ATTIC COMMEDY (1914); and Jessie Weston's FROM RITUAL TO ROMANCE (1920). Also explored are the epistemological dilemmas of culture-formation and cultural diffusion based on mythic and societal change. Sex and transgressive sexual modalities explored. This synthesis encompasses in a coherent whole gods, goddesses and their functions, festival rituals, the composition of sacred sites, the meaning of animal emblems and symbols in art, along with tribal social patterns. Taking a post-Lacanian view of the religious origin of culture, Dr.Marsland posits the use and structure of symbol in new and intricate ways. "The monograph will prove of great interest to archeologists, anthropologists, religious and art historians." Dr.John Frost