巫术研究的一个误区——弗雷泽“巫术时代论”与中国的巫术研究

“巫术时代论”是 19世纪后期西方人类学古典进化论者关于巫术起源、发展规则的一个错误假设 ,该理论认为 :所有人类社会的历史都要依次经历三个智力演化阶段 ,即“巫术时代”、“宗教时代”以及“科学时代” ;巫术必须而且仅仅产生于“巫术时代” ,有史以来的诸多巫术现象则统属史前遗留。 2 0世纪 30年代以来 ,这一错误理论传入中国并开始广泛蔓延 ,近年来尤呈愈演愈烈之势。重新审视学术史上这一“公案” ,总结其中的经验教训 ,对于严格学术规范、推进巫术文化研究具有积极意义

A Mistake in Research of Sorcery: On Frazer's Theory of Sorcery Era and Sorcery Research in China

How did sorcery come into being? An England anthropologist named James George Frazer(1854-1941) had put forward a theory called sorcery era to answer the question in 1890. In the theory it is believed that all civilizations would process their own era of sorcery inevitably and all sorcery was originated from that time. In fact there are more and more evidences show that the theory is a fallacy although most Chinese scholars persist in it still today. The author tries to analyze this problem and correct its error with examples in this article.