Ideas about biological evolution were initially applied to human societies. Rituals and symbols from different groups were seen as a way to place them in such a scheme.
James Frazer (1854-1941). Today he would be considered an “armchair anthropologist”—someone who does his research without conducting fieldwork, based on reports from others. Nowadays we understand that all human societies have in fact evolved. We do not speak of some humans as being more primitive than others. Anthropologists now reject the colonial notions of European superiority that once informed studies of ritual.