Edward Burnet Tylor arrived at his theory of animism through his travels as well as independent studies. In his view, Tylor held animism theory as an explanation of the origin of the great religions. However, his initial interest was not the religion but the research of the unfamiliar human culture where he was considered as the founder of cultural or social anthropology. Tylor met several archaeologists during his journeys in central America who ignited his eagerness for prehistoric studies. After several years, Tylor published his book “Primitive Culture” that formed an indicator for his research on human civilization. Moreover, this book acted as a bible to those who were much inspired by what was referred to as “Tylor’s science.” The “Primitive Culture” tended to explain with its theory the origin of all religious belief systems.
Tylor utilized new trends in his research. He accommodated a pioneering significance on ethnography that is the description of distinct peoples as well as cultures depending on their habits, customs, and mutual differences. Also, he used and ethnology that entailed the study of the attributes of distinct peoples and their relationship differences. This strategy gave him a distinctive kind of research; the description and the scientific analysis of individual society, cultural or racial group in all of its numerous parts. Besides, Tylor, alongside his associates, also used the term anthropology that involved the scientific study of humanity.
In the book “Primitive Culture,” Tylor indicates a theory of animism, which, according to him, is the earliest way of religion that he famously described as the “belief in Spiritual Beings.” He utilized the theories of a past philosopher who initiated religious belief, trying to explain the word. As a result, they created a primitive form of science. Tylor states that these philosophers were confused by two questions: the difference between the dead and the living and the origin of beings in dreams. Tylor concluded in his analysis that these were the spirits that animated people, thus developing his animism theory.
Tylor claimed that spirits filled the world for the animist primitives who thought that since humans are animated by spirits, this would be true for any other living thing. According to Tylor, animist cultures granted individual objects’ spirits that ultimately led to the idea of the development of a supreme god, which is the highest evolution of animism. This dream was a fallacy, according to Tylor, and would be replaced by science. For him, religion was just a misguided effort to describe why and how things occurred.
In my opinion, Tylor did not make his case in an explanation of the evolution of magic through religions to science. First, he approached magic in an intellectualistic way whereby he always started his interpretations by regenerating the thoughts of an ancient philosopher he refers to as “savage philosopher.” Besides, Tylor’s magic theory is based on the assumption that the mind generates the relationship between phenomena that are not reflected in real life.
Moreover, Tylor’s evolution study does not follow the standards that today would be considered scientific for the collection of ethnographic material as well as its interpretation. Besides, Tylor puts a lot of emphasis on the role of a single “savage philosopher,” without considering social circumstances. His idea of “survivals” is challenging since referring to something as obsolete and no longer having any role makes it hard to describe the phenomenon’s presence. He disregarded the likelihood of reuse of cultural aspects.