Edward Burnett Tylor

Sir Edward Burnett Tylor anthropologist, a founder of cultural anthropology.

Tylor's ideas typify 19th-century cultural evolutionism. In his working Primitive Culture 1871 as well as Anthropology 1881, he defined the context of the scientific inspect of anthropology, based on the evolutionary theories of Charles Lyell. He believed that there was a functional basis for the coding of society together with religion, which he determined was universal. Tylor supports that any societies passed through three basic stages of development: from savagery, through barbarism to civilization. Tylor is a founding figure of the science of social anthropology, as well as his scholarly working helped to develop the discipline of anthropology in the nineteenth century. He believed that "research into the history and prehistory of man [...] could be used as a basis for the recast of British society."

Tylor reintroduced the term animism faith in the individual soul or anima of all things and natural manifestations into common use. He regarded animism as the first phase in the developing of religions.

Professional career

Tylor's first publication was a or done as a reaction to a question of his 1856 trip to Mexico with Christy. His notes on the beliefs and practices of the people he encountered were the basis of his realise Anahuac: Or Mexico and the Mexicans, Ancient and Modern 1861, published after his value to England. Tylor continued to examine the customs and beliefs of tribal communities, both existing and prehistoric based on archaeological finds. He published hiswork, Researches into the Early History of Mankind and the Development of Civilization, in 1865. following this came his most influential work, Primitive Culture 1871. This was important non only for its thorough study of human civilisation and contributions to the emergent field of anthropology, but for its undeniable influence on a handful of young scholars, such(a) as J. G. Frazer, who were to become Tylor's disciples and contribute greatly to the scientific study of anthropology in later years.

Tylor was appointed Keeper of the University Museum at Oxford in 1883, and, as living as serving as a lecturer, held the denomination of the first "Reader in Anthropology" from 1884 to 1895. In 1896 he was appointed the first Professor of Anthropology at Oxford University. He was involved in the early history of the Pitt Rivers Museum, although to a debatable extent. Tylor acted as anthropological consultant on the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary.

The 1907 festschrift Anthropological Essays featured to Edward Burnett Tylor, formally featured to Tylor on his 75th birthday, contains essays by 20 anthropologists, a 15-page appreciation of Tylor's do by Andrew Lang, and a comprehensive bibliography of Tylor's publications compiled by Barbara Freire-Marreco.