The Golden Bough, A study of magic and religion by Sir James George Frazer.
While seriously out of date in its anthropological bedside (note: the high condescension towards the cultures it looks at, quotes and samples mostly taken at third hand), inclusion of no doubt spurious facts taken from *first hand testimonials* of colonialist adventurers and profiteers, the basic hypothesis I still find interesting. That most religious ritual is rooted in the historical practice of magic. And at base of all magic is agrarian ceremonies for a fertility god who dies yearly, rises again.
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