Sir Edward Burnett Tylor (1832-1917)
I first heard of Tylor many years ago when I was researching Edwin Smith (1876-1957) who became President of the Royal Anthropological Institute in the 1930s. I read anthropological books which pointed back to Tylor and his minimum definition of religion as 'the Belief in Spiritual Beings' and his view that culture/civilisation covers all human activity. I studied Edwin Smith for many years but only looked more closely at Tylor a few years ago after we moved to Wellington, Somerset, in 2006. I read about the town's history and discovered that Tylor had lived here for some time and was buried in the local cemetery. I agreed to speak on him at the Nynehead Local History Society so this prompted me to look more closely at his life and work. I gave the talk last Friday (12 April) and it went very well. Here is a very brief account of Tylor and his work. I had to cut out a lot of material to speak on Tylor for an hour so what follows is a very brief summary.
Edward B Tylor was born at Camberwell to a Quaker family of London brass founders. Tylorstown in South Wales is named after his brother Alfred, an eminent geologist, who started a coal mine there. Edward Tylor attended a Quaker school in North London before working in the firm's office. Signs of tuberculosis started in the 1850s and he travelled in the United Stated to recuperate. When he went on to Cuba he met a fellow Quaker, Henry Christy, who persuaded him to tour Mexico and introduced him to the emerging discipline of anthropology. Tylor studied this subject so enthusiastically and comprehensively that he would become the leading British anthropologist of the late nineteenth century. In 1858 he married Anna Rebecca Fox whose family had a textile manufacturing business in the town. They would settle at Linden, his in-laws' home on the outskirts of Wellington. He was described as an 'armchair anthropologist' and his armchair was about half a mile from mine!
He and his wife left the Society of Friends in 1864 but remained on good terms with their Quaker family and friends. Tylor read widely and wrote articles and books. All his books were published during his time in Wellington including his most famous title, Primitive Culture (1871). He lectured at the local Literary Institute and many other places, chaired the Wellington School Board and served as a magistrate until appointed Keeper of the Oxford University Museum in 1883. This included moving the huge Pitt-Rivers collection of artefacts from London to Oxford. He was Reader in Anthropology and became Oxford’s first Professor of Anthropology. He was twice President of the (now Royal) Anthropological Institute, received many academic honours and was knighted in 1912. After retiring in 1910 he returned to Wellington where he died in 1917.
Tylor's anthropology is dated now but he did a lot to create and give credibility to what is now regarded as a serious and important discipline.
He was buried in Rockwell Green cemetery and the headstone is most unusual in being imbedded in a tree.
Is there something symbolic about this?
Tylor has been commemorated recently in Tylor Place off Mantle Street in Wellington.
