Edward Tylor

Edward Tylor (1832-1917), British anthropologist, born in London. Tylor became interested in anthropology in 1856 while accompanying the British ethnologist Henry Christy on a scientific journey through Mexico. One result of this trip was his first book Anahuac, or Mexico and the Mexicans (1861). He served as the first professor of anthropology at the University of Oxford from 1896 to 1909. Tylor's studies on the subject of animism and his definition of culture were important early contributions to the field of anthropology. His major works are Researches into the Early History of Mankind (1865), Primitive Culture (2 volumes, 1871; new ed., 1958), and Anthropology (1881).