Primitive Culture V1: Researches Into The Development Of Mythology, Philosophy, Religion, Language, Art And Custom

by Edward Burnett Tylor

In Two Volumes.

Genres: Anthropology, Religion, Social Science, Nonfiction, Theory, Philosophy

Paperback

First published January 1, 1873

About the author

Sir Edward Burnett Tylor, FRAI, was the first Professor of Anthropology at Oxford University, and is considered the father of cultural anthropology via his publication of Primitive Culture in 1871. That same year he was elected a Fellow of the Riyal Society, and served as President of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 1879–80.

Reviews

[C. Todd White · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome!!! A must read for any student of culture. Thus was a far more complex yet nuanced study than I had anticipated. Lots to think on here.

I didn't appreciate this first volume until I had completed the second. It's a lot to push through, but worth every word.

[J.D. Steens · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is Volume One [Harper and Brothers, 1958] of a two volume work. Tylor writes about a science of cultural development from “low savages,” (his terminology), to barbarian, and then to civilization (largely 19th century Europe and the U.S.). Developed cultures build on what has gone before. While there are relapses, Tylor argues that there is still a general direction toward progress, as he defines that term. In promoting a scientific study of culture, Tylor states that of the ample cultural differences recorded in these books, the underlying causes are the same. Hence, Volume One is a detailed documentation of the evidence of magic and myth within "savage" cultures that is driven by an underlying need to explain the world and the self’s place in it. This documentation is impressive.

Tylor’s theoretical focus is on moral, ethical, political and religious practices, and their progression in sophistication over time, with a presumed superiority of European culture. It’s a big world out there and it’s not clear in what sense Tylor’s theory of cultural development is a progression, or how his valuation of such cultural practices can be seen as “value-free” science. It’s also not clear how Tylor’s Eurocentrism is not just another form of primitive tribalism.

[Roberto Yoed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Evolution goes brrrr

[Marinus]

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