本书是作者的经典之作，在写作时，作者并没有拘守注重文献考据、归纳索隐的朴学的旧路，他非常重视现代社会科学的理论和方法，以之开拓出研究工作的新局面。唯物史观在这里不是外加的标签或先验的教条，而是有机地表现在对于具体历史现象的剖析和说明之中。这就保证了本书的浓厚理论色彩，而理论思想的深邃正是本书论述深刻的重要原因。

First published in 1890, The Golden Bough is a seminal work of modern anthropology. A classic study of the beliefs and institutions of mankind that traces the development and confluence of thought from magic and ritual to modern scientific theory, it has been a source of great influence upon
such diverse writers as T.S. Eliot, Wyndham Lewis, and D.H. Lawrence. This edition restores many of the controversial passages expurgated in the 1922 edition that elucidate Frazer's bolder theories, and sets them within the framework of a valuable introduction and notes.