Response on EDWARD TYLOR's anthropological views

Edward Tylor is said to have laid down the foundations of anthropology. His main aim, I believe, was to explain the diversity of cultures. He formulated a definition of culture: "Culture or civilization is 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". As opposed to earlier beliefs, Tylor claimed that culture was learned, rather than biological. He attempted to answer questions such as why are societies at different or similar stages of evolution.

It is evident that Tylor derived his ideas from Darwin’s theory of evolution. He believed that societies evolved in much the same way as humans and other biological organisms. Tylor based his theory on two principals: uniformitarianism and survivals. Survivals refer to ideas and rituals from the past that have made it to the present. Uniformitarianism refers to “uniform action of uniform causes”, which essentially meant that culture was created by universally similar minds. Hence, Tylor concluded that all societies progress through the same stages of evolution in the same sequence, but at different rates.

Nowhere does he use the plural ‘cultures’ because his main idea was that we all had the same culture, that we all are one country; “All world is one place”. His theory was revolutionary as he was writing in the 1870s, when the world was dominated by racism.

Tylor attempted to categorize people on the basis of the evolutionary stage at which their culture was. These evolutionary stages were based on advancements in technology, ways of earning livelihood and language. He termed some people as ‘savages’ and others as ‘civilized’. In a way, I believe his theory contradicted with his words “All world is one place”. People divided the world on the basis of race, and what he was doing was quite similar.

It must also be taken into account that Tylor was an ‘armchair anthropologist’. He did not collect data first hand. One of the major reasons was that he believed that he couldn’t rely on the statement of a ‘savage’ for the purpose of research. Hence he collected data from accounts of travellers and missionaries. Anthropologists now question the credibility of his research as they believed that a society can never be understood fully without first hand research. Second hand research might be biased and tempered, and hence cannot be fully relied upon. Nevertheless, Tylor laid down the building blocks of anthropology.