“Thus it comes about that the endeavour of primitive people to make a clean sweep of all their troubles generally takes the form of a grand hunting out and expulsion of devils and ghosts. They think that if they can only shake off these their accursed tormentors, they will make a fresh start in life, happy and innocent; the tales of Eden and the old poetic golden age will come true again.”

— James Frazer , book The Golden Bough

Source: The Golden Bough (1890), Chapter 56, The Public Expulsion of Evils.

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James Frazer 50

Scottish social anthropologist 1854–1941

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