RELIGST 1B03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Edward Burnett Tylor, Animism, Reductionism

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Religious Studies
• Course: RELIGST 1B03
• Professor: Philippa Carter

Document Summary

Elements of the 19th c. academic study of religion. Darwin"s ideas influenced/shaped the questions that were asked and investigated by scholars of religion in the late 19th c. and early 20th c. here in the west. Priority of history and the quest for origin. Broad framework understood in terms of development or progress or at least a focus on change over time. The west in the nineteenth century (building on the enlightenment) The 19th c. was marked by a number of cultural trends and intellectual influences that affected the study of religion. The origin of species by means of natural selection published 1859. Captured and transformed the zeitgeist of the 19th c. M ller (text p. 54): "religion consists in the perception of the infinite under such manifestations as are able to influence the moral character of man. Tylor (text p. 53-54): "the belief in spiritual beings .