The Necessary Double-Face

The development of comparison as technique is essential to the development of a proper academic study of religion. Beginning with Smith’s groundbreaking study of James Frazer’s The Golden Bough, the several essays of Jonathan Smith are critically engaged to situate comparison in its long history as Smith documented it, including modes, styles, and classes. The chapter examines Smith’s careful consideration of the technical details and implications of the comparative method. Centrally, comparison must be motivated by difference to be interesting; things considered unique or sui generis are outside comparison. Comparison is engaged by the creative interests of the comparer rather than the naturalness of the items compared. Gill develops comparison as an ongoing iterative process, akin to joke and riddle, essential to persistent academic (and ordinary) engagement with the world, essential even to perception, classification, and the acquisition of all knowledge.