Tylor EB

Full Name:Sir Edward Burnett Tylor

Achievements: Regarded as the founder of cultural anthropology

Born: October 2, 1832; Camberwell, London, England

Died: January 2, 1917; Wellington, Somerset, England (Aged 84)

Field & Discipline: Anthropology

Education: Grove House School, Tottenham, Oxford University

Major Work:"Primitive Culture"

Life & Times:

Tylor's parents, who were Quakers, sent him toGrove House School at Tottenham, London, run by the Society of Friends according to the [taught according to] Pestalozzi* system.   At 23, he developed symptoms of tuberculosis and was sent to the Americas in search of a better clime.In 1856, in Cuba, he met archaeologist/ethnologist Henry Christy, a fellow Quaker, who persuaded him to join his expedition to study remnants of the ancient Toltec culture in the Valley of Mexico. The experience left Tylor with  a keen interest in the development of human societies.Five years later, in 1861, he published an account of the expedition, "Anahuac, or Mexico and the Mexicans, Ancient and Modern". His approach was empirical and as scientific as he could make it.  He considered cultural history a subdivision of history, which, in turn, he considered a subdivision of science.

In 1865, Tylor published a major anthropological work, "Researches in the Early History of Mankind", which established him as a leading figure in the new science of anthropology.  The work put forward the thesis that primitive and civilized cultures must be studied as parts of a single,  unfolding,  progressive whole.  (Tylor’s Quaker upbringing made him a believer in humankind’s rationality and capacity for improvement).Tylor's history of civilization was based on his examination of language, myths, rites, customs and beliefs: the areas of primitive culture that he believed changed little over time.  He constructed canons of "internal evidence", devising the "test of recurrence" or "undesigned coincidence", which could be used to extract reliable data from a mass of unreliable data.Tylor looked for similarities of gesture-language in societies separated in time and place, and found convincing evidence "that the mind of uncultured men works in much the same way at all times and everywhere".  He discovered that the practice of "magic" in various societies had a main commonality: it was the outward projection onto material reality of the inner processes of individual thought.

In his treatment of mythology, Tylor identified eight mythological themes common to North and South America and Asia: the World-Tortoise, the Man Swallowed by a Fish, the Sun-Catcher, the Accent of Heaven by the Tree, the Bridge of Dead, the Fountain of Youth, the Tail-Fisher, and the Diable Boiteux.Tylor believed these cases supported the view of [agreed with] Alexander von Humboldt* that the civilizations of Mexico and Asia had a common origin and were united by contact, if not by descent.

Having established the psychic unity of man, Tylor's next step was to establish a cultural reconstruction showing a progressive development from primitive to civilized man.  He achieved this in his second major work, "Primitive Culture", published in 1871, the same year Tylor was elected a fellow of the [fellow of] Royal Society*.The book marked the beginning of the scientific study of culture, and brought him international fame.  He identified, for example, the earliest form of religious belief as "animism", a belief in spiritual beings, arrived at, he assumed, by primitive attempts to explain the difference between the living body and the corpse.  He also elaborated upon a theme that became a central concept in his work: the relation of the life of primitive populations to that of modern populations.

Tylor noted how the customs and beliefs of a primitive society also existed in contemporary societies, and he examined these "survivals", a term he introduced.  He used the contemporary data he collected in Mexico and used other sources, such as the European folklore collected by the brothers [influenced by] Grimm*.

Tylor's evolutionary view was endorsed by most of his colleagues and by [supported by] Charles Darwin*, who had established biological evolution as the key to human development.  Tylor's last book, "Anthropology, an Introduction to the Study of Man and Civilization" (1881), was an excellent summary of the current state of the field, written in Tylor's typical undogmatic, lucid, and lively manner.

Tyler's work came at a turning point in scientific history, when the geology of [work related to] Hutton* and [work related to] Lyell*, and the theories of Darwin and [work related to] Wallace* were creating a whole new vision of the Earth.

In 1883, already awarded a doctorate of civil law at Oxford. Tylor was appointed head of the University's Museum and, a year later, a reader in anthropology.  In 1884, he was named president of the British Association's first anthropological section.

He was elected president of the Anthropological Society in 1891, and was made the first professor of anthropology in 1896, a post he held until his retirement in 1909.  He was knighted in 1912.

Extra Connections:

[work related to] Frazer* claimed his debt to Tylor.

[work related to]Conan Doyle*'s "Lost Worlds" was inspired by Tylor's theories.

Assessment: Played a central role in the establishment of the social sciences as a serious area of study

Oneliner: EB Tylor, founder of cultural anthropology

 Language: English

Father: Joseph Tylor

Mother: Harriet Skipper

Siblings: Alfred (geologist)

Spouse: Anna Fox

Children: None

Bibliography:

• Encyclopedia Britannica.
• Dictionary of National Biography.
• Kardiner, Abram and Edward Preeble, They Studied Man, London: Secker & Warburg, 1962 .
• Marett, R.R., Tylor, London: Chapman and Hall, 1936.

Wikipedia