A UNIVERSAL PREHISTORY? THE ISSUES OF EDWARD BURNETT TYLOR’S RESEARCHES INTO THE EARLY HISTORY OF MANKIND AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF CIVILIZATION (1865) Cover Image

UNE PRÉHISTOIRE UNIVERSELLE? ENJEUX DES RESEARCHES INTO THE EARLY HISTORY OF MANKIND AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF CIVILIZATION (1865) D’EDWARD BURNETT TYLOR
A UNIVERSAL PREHISTORY? THE ISSUES OF EDWARD BURNETT TYLOR’S RESEARCHES INTO THE EARLY HISTORY OF MANKIND AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF CIVILIZATION (1865)

Author(s): Maria Beatrice Di Brizio
Subject(s): Culture and social structure , Prehistory
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego
Keywords: Edward Burnett Tylor (1832–1917); Victorian anthropology; prehistory; three–age system;

Summary/Abstract: Edward Burnett Tylor (1832–1917), leading voice of British Victorian anthropology, significantly contributed to the sciences of prehistory by theorising the universality of the Stone Age in his work entitled Researches into the Early History of Mankind and the Development of Civilization (1865). In meeting this challenge, Tylor offers a comparative overview of extra–European archaeology, linguistics and ethnography, as well as of data on European prehistory, languages and folklore. Focusing on the first edition of the Researches, this essay analyses Tylor’s generalizations about the Stone Age, their methodological and theoretical issues, their key–notions and data as well as their reception at the third session of the International Congress of Prehistoric Anthropology and Archaeology (1868).

  • Issue Year: 2022
  • Issue No: 54
  • Page Range: 33-64
  • Page Count: 32
  • Language: French