EDWARD BURNETT TYLOR (1832-1917)

Biographical Introduction and His Approach: Edward

Burnett Tylor was born in 1832 at Comberwell Grove,
England. He occupies an outstanding place among the
anthropologists. His famous research work 'The primitive
Culture' amount a big contribution towards the study of
religion of the primitive people. In his work he has
discussed many important topics of religion such as soul,
spirits, deities, rituals, prayer, sacrifices, mythology and
animism. He was interested in the origin and growth of
religion. Thus with this motive he studied the primitive
people, their mentality, behaviour and culture. He studied
many tribes belonging to different lands and cultures and
found among them a general principle of approach to
understand the phenomena of nature. To him these
principles were essentially rational though working in
crude mental
Tylor saw that the prevailing mode of thinking and
attitude of the primitive people towards nature was nothing
else than their rudiment form of religious belief and
practices which they derived from their logical calculations
and enquiries into the natural phenomena.
Animism as The Minimum Definition of Religion: Having thus studied many
primitive tribes Tylor carne to the conclusion that "The belief in spiritual
beings" or