Summary Of Edward Burnett Tylor: The Methods Of Anthropology

The final 19th century evolutionist that will be examined is Edward Burnett Tylor. Tylor, a classical cultural evolutionist of the 19th century provided the world of anthropology with a definition of culture that is still used in the field to this day. Throughout his work, he examined the ideas of culture and those that surround it. He has coined many terms and because of this, has created an everlasting impact on anthropologists. For the purposes of this paper, the introductory chapter to one of his most famous pieces of work, Primitive Culture, will be examined. According to Tylor, culture is something that, “includes knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, law…” (1873:9) He created this statement, which encompasses many aspects that make up what

Boas is one of the main game changers in regards to anthropology as he critiqued and criticized the earlier European anthropologists that came before him. The piece of work that will be examined for the purpose of this paper comes from the journal titled American Anthropologist, and is titled The Methods of Ethnology. The Methods of Ethnology, which was published in 1920, aims to prove that previous theorists were too harsh in the way in which they went about anthropology, and tried to provide academic readers with information about how American anthropologists wanted to go about things. Boas begins the article with the thought that theorists such as Morgan and Tylor, “were under the spell of the idea that there was a general uniform evolution of culture in which all parts of mankind participated.” (1920:86) This quote illustrates the reaction to the evolutionists and displays how Boas’s thoughts in regards to their ideas on culture and evolution, were not in accordance. Boas also brings up the point regarding the evolutionists point of view and states that, “…the evolutionary point of view presupposes that the course of historical changes in the cultural life of mankind follows definite laws which are applicable everywhere, and which brings it about that cultural development is, in its main lines, is the same among all races and people.”

Boas also adds in some criticism on Freud’s psychoanalytical theory in regards to symbols, which makes it evident that anthropologists were not the only people being critiqued in regards to theory, and that he also did not agree with the psychological theories put forward by Sigmund Freud. Overall, it is incredibly clear that Boas’s reactions to the evolutionists of the 19th century were not positive, and that the points in which he presented throughout this paper seemed to be more widely accepted in regards to culture and the evolution of