Sir Edward Burnett Tylor was born into a Quaker family in Camberwell, London, United Kingdom on October 2, 1832. When Tylor was just 16, he was forced to drop out of school and manage the family brass foundry after his parents' deaths. He did this for several years until being diagnosed with tuberculosis. Per a doctor's request, Tylor left the United Kingdom to travel to a warmer climate, eventually landing Tylor in Cuba. It was here in Cuba where he met ethnologist Henry Christy, a man whose influence change the direction of Tylor's life. The two traveled to Mexico, and it was this trip that inspired Tylor to write his first anthropologic book. Despite returning to England after this trip and finding a wife, Tylor's experience in Mexico helped him find his true passion in life and he continued to observe different cultures and record his observations for years. Tylor's work led to him being recognized as a leading anthropologist and he was honored for his contributions to the field multiple times by Oxford University who also made him the Chair of Anthropology at the university. Tylor was also knighted in 1912. Tylor retired from his work in 1909 and passed away in Wellington, United Kingdom on January 2, 1917.

Anthropology Works

Tylor is known for his work with the cultural side of anthropology and is even known as "the father of cultural anthropology." He studied cultures from both the past and the present, focusing on their languages, art, rituals, customs, myths, and beliefs. From his studies, he figured that cultures can be classified as savage, barbarian, or civilized. Each of these was a stage of development, with savage being the lowest-developed cultures while civilized was the highest developed culture. He also believed that animism was the earliest form of religion, and like culture itself, religion would evolve as cultures evolved from savagery to barbarism and finally to civilized culture. From his findings, Tylor believed that all humans were of the same species, a term also known as monogenism.

Tylor has three works that he is most famous for. The first one, Researches into the Early History of Mankind and the Development of Civilization, established Tylor as a leading anthropologist. In this book, Tylor argues that all cultures, whether from the past or the present, must be studied as different parts in the same history of humanity. He writes "“The past is continually needed to explain the present, and the whole to explain the part" (Tylor, 1865). The last book Tylor wrote, Anthropology: An Introduction to the Study of Man and Civilization, is another work he is famous for. This book summarized what was known and accepted in anthropology in the late 19th century and became the classic textbook for anthropology when the field was still in its development phase. While many anthropologists today see Tylor as having an ethnocentric perspective in his research and opinions, many of the ideas described in this book still influence anthropology today.

https://monoskop.org/images/c/c4/Tylor_Edward_B_Anthropology_an_introduction_1896.pdf

The book that gained Tylor the most fame, however, was Primitive Culture: Researches into the Development of Mythology, Philosophy, Religion, Art and Custom. It was in this book that Tylor made many of his famous ideas known, such as arguing the Darwinian type of cultural evolution. Tylor believed cultures "started as savages, referring to hunting and gathering groups, before evolving to barbarians, such as nomadic herding and agricultural societies, before finally evolving to modern civilization, which was cultures based on writing and urban life" (Tylor, 1871). Cultures could either evolve or devolve, with certain "survivals," another word for cultural aspects that survive as cultures evolve, remaining with more advanced cultures. This writing insinuates that Tylor believes that while humans were inherently the same, "civilized" cultures are better than "barbarian" and "savage" cultures. He also wrote about animism being the simplest form of religion, and that as cultures continued to evolve, religion too evolved and became more organized.

https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2008-16642-000

Learn More

Biographies

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edward-Burnett-Tylor

https://biography.yourdictionary.com/sir-edward-burnett-tylor

Videos

Edward Burnett Tylor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRSii4ZfJ9Q

How Do Cultures Evolve https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9M7pKi-3o18

Additional Information on his work

Edward Burnett Tylor and the Evolution of Religion https://sciencereligionspectrum.org/blog-posts/edward-burnett-tylor-and-the-evolution-of-religion/

List of Edward Burnett Tylor Books https://openlibrary.org/authors/OL4363218A/Edward_B._Tylor

Works Cited

C. Hercules Read. 1917. 'Sir Edward Burnett Tylor, D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S. '. Man Vol. 17, pp.25-26. (available on-line: http://www.therai.org.uk/archives-and-manuscripts/obituaries/edward-burnett-tylor).

“Edward Burnett Tylor.” Edward Burnett Tylor - New World Encyclopedia, www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Edward_Burnett_Tylor.

“Edward Burnett Tylor.” Quakers in the World, www.quakersintheworld.org/quakers-in-action/391/Edward-Burnett-Tylor.

“Edward Burnett Tylor.” The Gifford Lectures, 12 Feb. 2019, www.giffordlectures.org/lecturers/edward-burnett-tylor.

Logan, Peter Melville. “On Culture: Edward B. Tylor’s Primitive Culture, 1871.” BRANCH: Britain, Representation and Nineteenth-Century History. Ed. Dino Franco Felluga. Extension of Romanticism and Victorianism on the Net. Web, www.branchcollective.org/?ps_articles=peter-logan-on-culture-edward-b-tylors-primitive-culture-1871.