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Edward Burnett Tylor
Edward Burnett Tylor
Edward Burnett Tylor
Born October 2, 1832
Camberwell, London
Died January 2, 1917
Nationality English
Fields anthropology
Known for cultural evolutionism

Sir Edward Burnett Tylor (October 2, 1832–January 2, 1917), was an English anthropologist. Events 1187 - Siege of Jerusalem: Saladin captures Jerusalem after 88 years of Crusader rule Year 1832 ( MDCCCXXXII) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Camberwell is a district of London, England and forms part of the London Borough of Southwark. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. Events 366 - The Alamanni cross the frozen Rhine River in large numbers invading the Roman Empire. Year 1917 ( MCMXVII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Anthropology (/ˌænθɹəˈpɒlədʒi/ from Greek grc ἄνθρωπος anthrōpos, "human" -λογία -logia) is the study of Sociocultural evolution(ism is an umbrella term for theories of cultural evolution and Social evolution, describing how Cultures and societies Events 1187 - Siege of Jerusalem: Saladin captures Jerusalem after 88 years of Crusader rule Year 1832 ( MDCCCXXXII) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Events 366 - The Alamanni cross the frozen Rhine River in large numbers invading the Roman Empire. Year 1917 ( MCMXVII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Anthropology (/ˌænθɹəˈpɒlədʒi/ from Greek grc ἄνθρωπος anthrōpos, "human" -λογία -logia) is the study of

Tylor is considered representative of cultural evolutionism. Sociocultural evolution(ism is an umbrella term for theories of cultural evolution and Social evolution, describing how Cultures and societies In his works Primitive culture and Anthropology, he defined the context of scientific study of anthropology, based on the evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin. Charles Robert Darwin (February 12 1809 &ndash April 19 1882 was an English naturalist, who realised and demonstrated that all Species of life He believed that there was a functional basis for the development of society and religion, which he determined was universal. E. B. Tylor is considered by many a founding figure of the science of social anthropology, and his scholarly works are seen as important and lasting contributions to the discipline of Anthropology that was beginning to take shape in the 19th century[1]. He believed that research into the history and prehistory of man could be used as a basis for the reform of British society. History is the study of the past particularly the written record Those who study history as a Profession are called Historians Etymology Stone Age Paleolithic See also Paleolithic, Recent African Origin, Early Homo sapiens, Early human migrations "Paleolithic" The History of English society demonstrates innumerable changes over many centuries [2]

He reintroduced the term animism (the faith in the individual soul or anima of all things, and natural manifestations) into common use. Animism (from Latin anima ( Soul, Life) commonly refers to a religious belief that Souls or Spirits exist in Animals The soul, according to many religious and philosophical beliefs is the self-awareness, or Consciousness, unique to a particular living Nature, in the broadest sense is equivalent to the natural world, physical universe, material world or material universe. [3] He considered animism as the first phase of development of religions. A religion is a set of Tenets and practices often centered upon specific Supernatural and moral claims about Reality, the Cosmos

Contents

Early Life

E. B. Tylor was born in 1832, in Camberwell, London. Camberwell is a district of London, England and forms part of the London Borough of Southwark. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. He was the son of Joseph Tylor and Harriet Skipper, part of a family of financially well-off Quakers, owners of a London brass factory.

He was educated at Grove House School, Tottenham, but due to the death of Tylor's parents during his early adulthood and his restrictive Quaker background, he never gained a university degree. Tottenham (pronounced "tot-num" by locals is an urban area of north London, England in the London Borough of Haringey, situated north-east of [4] After his parents’ death, he readied himself to help manage the family business, but this plan was abruptly set aside by symptoms consistent with the onset of tuberculosis. Tuberculosis (abbreviated as TB for tubercle bacillus or T u' b' erculosis Bacillus --> is a common Following advice to spend time in warmer climes, Tylor left England in 1855, traveling to Central America. The experience proved to be an important and formative one, sparking in Tylor a life-long interest in studying unfamiliar cultures.

During his travels Tylor also met Henry Christy, a fellow Quaker, ethnologist and archaeologist. Henry Christy ( 26 July 1810 - 4 May 1865) English Ethnologist, was born at Kingston upon Thames. Tylor's association with Christy greatly stimulated his awakening interest in anthropology, and helped broaden his inquiries to include prehistoric studies[5].

Professional Career

Tylor’s first publication was a result of his 1856 trip to Mexico with Christy. The notes Tylor took on the beliefs and practices of the people he encountered, allowed him to publish Anahuac: Or Mexico and the Mexicans, Ancient and Modern (1861) upon his return to England. While never traveling again Tylor continued to study the customs and beliefs of tribal communities, both existing and prehistoric (based on archaeological finds) and published his second work, Researches into the Early History of Mankind and the Development of Civilization, in 1865. Following this came his most influential work, Primitive Culture (1871). Despite continuing to work and write all the way up to the beginnings of World War I, Primitive Culture remained the pinnacle of Tylor's career, important not only for its thorough study of human civilization and contributions to the emergent field of anthropology, but for its undeniable influence on a handful of young scholars, such as J. G. Frazer, who were to become Tylor's disciples and contribute greatly to the scientific study of anthropology in later years.

In 1871 Tylor was elected Fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1875 received the honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Laws from the University of Oxford. He was appointed Keeper of the University Museum at Oxford in 1883, and, as well as serving as a lecturer, held the title of the first “Reader in Anthropology” from 1884-1895. In 1896 he became the first Professor of Anthropology at Oxford and he was knighted in 1912.

Ideology and "Primitive Culture"

Tylor’s ideology is best described in his most famous work, the two-volume Primitive Culture. The first volume, The Origins of Culture, deals with various aspects of ethnography including social evolution, linguistics, and myth. The second volume, titled Religion in Primitive Culture, deals mainly with his interpretation of animism. Animism (from Latin anima ( Soul, Life) commonly refers to a religious belief that Souls or Spirits exist in Animals

On the first page of Primitive Culture, Tylor gives us one of his most widely-recognized contributions to anthropology is his definition of culture, His all-inclusive definition reads: “Culture, or civilization, taken in its broad, ethnographic sense, is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society. Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning "to cultivate" generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic ”[6]

Unlike many of his predecessors and contemporaries, Tylor asserted that the human mind and its capabilities are the same globally, irrespective of a particular society’s stage in social evolution. [7] This essentially means that a hunter-gatherer society would possess the same amount of intelligence as an advanced industrial society. The difference, Tylor asserts, is education, that knowledge and methodology that takes thousands of years to acquire. This is why Tylor often likens primitive cultures to “children”, and why he constantly sees culture and the mind of humans as progressive. At the end of Primitive Culture, Tylor asserts that “The science of culture is essentially a reformers' science. ”[8]

Another term ascribed to Tylor was his theory of “survivals. ” Tylor asserted that when a society evolves, certain customs are retained that are unnecessary in the new society, like outworn and useless “baggage”. [9] His definition of survivals are “processes, customs, and opinions, and so forth, which have been carried on by force of habit into a new state of society different from that in which they had their original home, and they thus remain as proofs and examples of an older condition of culture out of which a newer has been evolved. ”[10] This can include outdated practices, such as the phenonmenon of European bloodletting, which lasted long after the medical practices on which it was based had faded from use and been replaced by more modern techniques. [11] Despite much criticism about his survivals (critics argued that he identified the term but provided an insufficient reason as to why survivals actually survive), his originality in coining the term is still acknowledged.

Works

Related Studies

References

  1. ^ Paul Bohannan, Social Anthropology (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1969)
  2. ^ Lewis, Herbert S. (1998) The Misrepresentation of Anthropology and its Consequences American Anthropologist 100:" 716-731
  3. ^ Definition of animism at the Online Etymology Dictionary, accessed 2 October 2007. American Anthropologist is the flagship journal of the American Anthropological Association (AAA Events 1187 - Siege of Jerusalem: Saladin captures Jerusalem after 88 years of Crusader rule Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century.
  4. ^ Lowrie, Robert H. (1917). Edward B. Tylor. American Anthropologist, New Series Vol. 19, No. 2. (Apr. – Jun. , 1917), pp. 262-268.
  5. ^ R. R. Marett, Tylor (London: Chapman and Hall, 1936)
  6. ^ Tylor,Edward. 1920 [1871]. Primitive Culture. New York: J. P. Putnam’s Sons. 1.
  7. ^ Stringer, Martin D. (1999). Rethinking Animism: Thoughts from the Infancy of Our Discipline. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Vol. 5, No. 4. (Dec. , 1999), pp. 541-555.
  8. ^ Tylor,Edward. 1920 [1871]. Primitive Culture. New York: J. P. Putnam’s Sons. 410.
  9. ^ Wallis, Wilson D. (1936). Reviewed Work(s):The Doctrine of Survivals by Margaret T. Hodgen. The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 49, No. 193. (Jul. - Sep. , 1936), pp. 273-274.
  10. ^ Tylor,Edward. 1920 [1871]. Primitive Culture. New York: J. P. Putnam’s Sons. 16.
  11. ^ Braun, Willi and Russel T. McCutcheon, eds. 2000. Guide to the Study of Religion. London: Continuum. 160.

External links

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