Edward Burnett Tylor Quotes

do not think I have ever met with a single fact which seems to me to justify the theory, of which Dr. von Martius is perhaps the leading advocate, that the ordinary condition of the savage is the result of degeneration from a far higher state.

degeneration has been rather of a local than of a general character,

There are people so intent on the separate life of individuals that they cannot grasp a notion of the action of the community as a whole – such an observer, incapable of a wide view of society, is aptly described in the saying that he “cannot see the forest for the trees… Thus sometimes we watch individuals acting for their own ends with little thought of their effect on society at large.

Thus sometimes we watch individuals acting for their own ends with little thought of their effect on society at large.

It is always unsafe to detach a custom from its hold on past events, treating it as an isolated fact to be simply disposed of by some plausible explanation.

We may fancy ourselves looking on Civilization, as in personal figure she traverses the world; we see her lingering or resting by the way, and often deviating into paths that bring her toiling back to where she had passed by long ago; but, direct or devious, her path lies forward, and if now and then she tries a few backward steps, her walk soon falls into a helpless stumbling. It is not according to her nature, her feet were not made to plant uncertain steps behind her, for both in her forward view and in her onward gait she is of truly human type.