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Morgan and Tyler

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Morgan and Tyler
The evolutionistic theory refers to the biological concept of progress and development. The theory states that organisms were meant to increase in complexity, and later on included cultural and social evolution by comparing primitive tribal groups to modern society, and studying how certain aspects in the tribal groups were repeated all over the continent. Edward B. Tylor and Lewis H. Morgan brought the term "evolution" to anthropology, which makes them crucial to the growth and improvement of anthropology.

Morgan focused on building upon his theory of social evolution in which he made links between social and technological progress. He studied and emphasized the kinship relationships across various cultures and larger social structures. Tylor built upon cultural evolutionism and studied it in depth in the Primitive cultures (his book). He focused on culture which included belief, art, morals and laws, but mostly on religion. Tylor believed that the human mind and its capabilities had remained the same despite the social evolution and said that people all around the world and society had the same intelligence.

Lewis Henry Morgan and Edward Burnett Tylor were two anthropologists who took an evolutionary theoretical approach as they described how humans had developed since the beginning to the Victorian age. They both used Comte and Spencer’s ideas and built upon them using their own data or information from others. They both focused on human development and used living tribal people as an example of prehistoric society. Comparative method was also used and established on by Morgan and Tylor since they compared the primitive people to the people in civilization.

Morgan was an American lawyer who later travelled to visit local groups and study the ceremonies, religion, government, and material culture of these little groups or tribes. He was also studying marriage, family, and kinship and in 1871 published the first comparative study of the kinship systems.

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