EDWARD

See also:

• BURNETT, FRANCES ELIZA HODGSON (1849– )

BURNETT

See also:

• EDWARD BURNETT TYLOR (1832- )

TYLOR (1832- )  , English anthropologist, was born at Camberwell, London, on the 2nd of October 1832, the son of Joseph Tylor, a brassfounder . Alfred Tylor, the geologist, was an elder brother . His parents were members of the Society of Friends, at one of whose schools, at Grove House, Tottenham, he was educated . In 1848 he entered his father's manufactory in London, but at about the age of twenty he was threatened with consumption and forced to abandon business . During 1855-1856 he travelled in the United States of America to recruit his health . Proceeding in 1856 to Cuba, he met Henry Christy the ethnologist, with whom he visited Mexico . Tylor's association with Christy greatly stimulated his awakening interest in anthropology, and his visit to Mexico, with its rich prehistoric remains, led him to make a systematic study of the science . While on a visit to Cannes he wrote a record of his observations, entitled Anahuac; or, Mexico and the Mexicans, Ancient. and Modern, which was published in 1861 . In 1865 appeared Researches into the Early History of Mankind, which made Tylor's reputation . It showed great research, original insight, and much constructive power in the formation of systematic views . The chapters on early myths and their geographical distribution are especially valuable . The work reached a third edition in 1878 .

This

book was followed in 1871 by the more elaborate Primitive Culture: Researches into the Development of Mythology, Philosophy, Religion, Language, Art and Custom, which at once became the standard general treatise on anthropology . Tylor's treatment of animism (chs.xi.-xvii.) was particularly elaborate, and he first determined the limits of that province of anthropology intending it to include " the general doctrine of souls, and other spiritual beings." In 1881 Tyler published a smaller and more popular handbook on Anthropology . His work had already met with recognition . In 1871 he was elected F.R.S., and in 1875 received the honorary degree of D.C.L. from the university of Oxford . He was appointed keeper of the University Museum at Oxford in 1883, and reader in anthropology in 1884 . In 1888 he was appointed first Gifford lecturer at Aberdeen University, and delivered a two years' course on " Natural Religion." In 1896 he became first professor of anthropology at Oxford . At the end of 1907 'the Clarendon Press published a volume of Anthropological Essays, to which various representative scholars of a younger generation in the same field had contributed, the essays being dedicated and presented to Tylor as a mark of honour; and this collection includes not only a bibliography of his publications by Miss Freire-Marreco, but also an appreciation of Tylor's life-work by Andrew Lang .