Introduction
Sir Edward Burnett Tylor is widely regarded as a founding figure of modern British cultural anthropology and served as Oxford University's first Professor of Anthropology. Through foundational works such as 'Primitive Culture' (1871), he was instrumental in establishing anthropology as an empirical, comparative science grounded in the fundamental premise of the psychic unity of mankind.
Classical Concept of Culture
In his seminal work Primitive Culture (1871), Tylor formulated the first formal anthropological definition of culture, defining it as 'that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.' This definition established culture as learned, non-biological, and universal, moving anthropological inquiry away from racial determinism toward sociological explanations.
Theory of Religion: Animism
Tylor proposed a minimum definition of religion as 'the belief in Spiritual Beings.' He developed a rationalist evolutionary model of religious belief that progressed through distinct developmental stages:
- Animism: The earliest form of religion, arising from early human attempts to rationally explain phenomena such as dreams, trances, visions, and death through the concept of a dual soul or animating spirit.
- Polytheism and Monotheism: As societies developed greater social and intellectual complexity, spiritual entities were organized into hierarchies of multiple deities (polytheism), eventually culminating in a single supreme deity (monotheism).
Doctrine of Survivals
Tylor introduced the concept of 'survivals'—vestigial customs, beliefs, or practices that persist into a later stage of society after losing their original functional utility or symbolic meaning (e.g., saying 'God bless you' after a sneeze). He utilized these survivals as vital historical markers to reconstruct the cultural prehistory and unilineal evolutionary paths of human societies.
Pioneering Statistical Comparative Method
In his 1889 paper on marriage institutions, Tylor introduced quantitative methodology to ethnology. By analyzing statistical cross-tabulations—which he termed 'adhesions'—across a broad sample of distinct human societies, he demonstrated institutional correlations, such as the association between matrilocal residence and particular kinship customs, laying the groundwork for statistical cross-cultural research.
Critical Assessment
Despite his landmark contributions, Tylor's work drew significant criticism from Franz Boas and the historical particularist school for over-relying on 'armchair anthropology' and for endorsing a unilineal, ethnocentric view of human progression. Nonetheless, his conceptualization of culture and commitment to comparative rigor formed the cornerstone of academic anthropology.
Conclusion
Tylor's systematic formulation of culture, religion, and cross-cultural methodology transitioned anthropology from speculative natural history into an autonomous academic discipline. His insistence on the psychic unity of humankind remains a vital foundational premise across modern anthropological discourse.