Edward Burnett Tylor b. 1832
A father of contemporary social and cultural anthropology
and the first professor of anthropology in Britain, E B Tylor’s works helped to
build interest in the discipline. The gifted writer and tireless researcher had
a keen interest in the development and evolution of language, suggesting that
gesture probably preceded spoken language. His theory on the origin of
language, explained in Researches into the Early History of Mankind
influenced by Charles Darwin. Tylor’s “Gesture-Language” also considered
cultural differences in gesture and he focused on what this said about the
characteristics of the human mind, concluding that, with gesture-language, the
uncultured minds work in much the same way as the cultured, at all times,
everywhere. Tylor also discussed the powerful relationship between objects and
names/ideas.
Read Anthropology an introduction to the study of man and
civilization (1881) Macmillan and Co.
