Primitive culture, vol. 2 (of 2)

Name: Primitive culture, vol. 2 (of 2)
Author: Edward B. Tylor

By Edward B. Tylor

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About This Book

The second volume continues an examination of animistic belief, tracing doctrines about souls, their persistence after death, and forms of rebirth or transmigration into human, animal, vegetal, and object bodies. It surveys scarce belief in bodily resurrection, widespread notions of a continued but mortal soul, ghosts attached to corpses and funerary rites, and legends of journeys to lands of the dead with varied localizations. It then broadens animism into spirit-theory, treating embodiment, possession, fetishes, idols, and spirit-caused illness, and considers spirits as agents in dreams, visions, and everyday phenomena while noting parallels with emerging scientific explanations.

About the Author

Edward B. Tylor

Edward B. Tylor was a prominent English anthropologist and a key figure in the development of cultural anthropology. He is best known for his influential work "Primitive Culture," where he introduced the concept of culture as a complex whole, encompassing knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, and customs. Tylor's studies of indigenous peoples, particularly in Mexico, are reflected in his book "Anahuac: or, Mexico and the Mexicans, Ancient and Modern," which explores the rich cultural heritage of the region. His contributions laid the groundwork for modern anthropological thought, emphasizing the importance of cultural evolution and the comparative study of societies.