REL 2000 Chapter : Animism And Magi
Document Summary
Born in 1823 to a quaker family: tylor was nonreligious though. Traveled to central america -> interest in primitive cultures. Cultural context: questioning the age of the earth, on the origin of species (1859) the descent of man (1871), higher criticism. Emphasized: ethnography- description of society/cultural, ethnology- scientific analysis of a society/culture, understand the religious claims but never appealing to them for answers. Muller"s influence: language was key for muller, attempts to describe the sense of the infinite fail; infinite is not natural/ human so it can"t be described in human terms. The disease of language: come to take these failures literally. Must know the entire culture not just know specific things know everything. Accepted 2 laws of culture : 1) psychic unity of humanity, universal rationality explains cross-cultural similarities, 2) cultures intellectually progress over time. Origin of all religions is animism (objects: the belief in living, personal powers behind all things .
