Edward Tylor And Anism Essay

Edward Burnett Tylor was born into a wealthy liberal Quaker English home in 1832. Tylor 's family owned a successful London brass factory. Edward always had an interest in society and culture. In 1855 when Tylor was 23, he decided to move to Central America after being diagnosed with tuberculosis. This is where he sparked his interest in unfamiliar cultures. His studies of the peoples of Central America led him to publish, Anahuac: Or Mexico and the Mexicans, Ancient and Modern (1861). Along his travels Tylor met Archaeologist Henry Christy, a fellow Quaker, who influenced him to pursue prehistoric studies and research primitive culture. This new research led to the publishing of his second book, Researches into the Early History of Mankind and the Development of Civilization (1865). After many more years of study and research Tylor would publish, Primitive Culture (1871), his most important book to be published. Primitive Culture (1871) would be a tremendous addition to the study of human civilization and would create an obsession over “Mr. Tylor’s science” (Pals 16), anthropology, the scientific study of mankind. Tylor was made Oxford University’s first reader and first professor in Anthropology. Many think of Tylor …show more content…
Once society believes in one supreme spirit, being, or deity, then they have reached the last and highest stage of animism. However, even with the progress of civilization and religion with the help of animism, animism is a “mistake”. Tylor believes that animism is a “primitive science” with unreason and has no good for today’s science and reasoning. Tylor says that primitives, we must remember, are still savages with the rationality of children which “much of what they believe to be true, must be set down as false” (Pals