Primitive culture: researches into the development of mythology, philosophy, religion, language, art, and custom

About this book

A broad comparative study of mythology, religion, language, art, and custom, Edward Burnett Tylor’s volume asks how these forms develop across human societies and is written for readers interested in the study of culture. Folklore appears here alongside larger questions about how people explain the world and shape their languages. An old Hebrew counting song, whose verses add religious and communal symbols one by one, is compared with later Christian versions. Elsewhere, Tylor examines Indigenous number words stretched to mean something like “a great many,” showing his interest in the small changes through which language carries meaning.