REVIEWS. 
263 
ANTHROPOLOGY.* 
M R. E. B. TYLOR’S Manual of Anthropology does not profess to "be an 
exhaustive treatise upon the subject, and indeed, as he himself says 
in his preface, some portions of the science of man are designedly handled in 
a somewhat superficial fashion. This statement relates more especially to 
the ethnographical section, in which the author has avoided detailed reference 
to the more technical treatment of the physical characters of the various 
races of mankind. The ordinary student, however, will find quite sufficient 
information in the first three chapters, which deal with what may be called 
the natural-history side of the subject, to satisfy his requirements ; those 
who wish to study this branch more profoundly will easily find no lack of 
other guides. 
The remaining chapters are devoted to an exposition of the principles of 
the science of Anthropology. Taking, as his starting-point the notion of the 
primitive barbarism of our earliest ancestors, Mr. Tylor shows in a very 
clear and interesting manner the mode in which the different characteristics 
of man as a social creature have originated and attained to their varying 
degrees of development ; and by wide, but judicious generalizations, and 
a most careful treatment of the matters in hand, he has certainly suc- 
ceeded in producing a picture of the course by which mankind have attained 
to their present state which leaves little to be desired. 
After dealing, as already stated, with the general natural-history facts 
of Anthropology, Mr. Tylor passes in review the development of the special 
characteristics of man, naturally commencing with language, as being the 
distinction between man and the lower animals upon which the progress of 
the human race in all other respects mainly depends. The art of writing of 
course constitutes a sort of appendage to language. The four following 
chapters relating to the arts of fife and dealing with the invention and im- 
provement of weapons and instruments of all kinds, leading up to the most 
complete machinery at present in use ; the progress of mankind in the matters 
of dwellings, clothing, and navigation ; the use of fire and cookery, which 
used to be cited as the one recognizable distinction of man ; the manufacture 
of vessels of various kinds, and the employment of metals in the arts and as 
money, will be read with the greatest interest, as they contain an infinity of 
curious information brought together from the most various sources, and open 
up many new views of the connexion between old and frequently obsolete 
practices, and those of the most advanced civilization. 
One chapter is devoted to the arts of pleasure, under which head Mr. 
Tylor includes, among other things, poetry and music, dancing, the drama, 
the imitative arts of sculpture and painting, and games. The remaining 
chapters deal with the origin and progress of scientific knowledge, of 
spiritual ideas and religion, of history and mythology, and of society. 
As we have already stated, the book is most interesting and suggestive, 
and so far as we are able to judge, the materials have been selected with 
* Anthropology : an Introduction to the Study of Man and Civilization. 
By Edmund B. Tylor. 8vo. London: Macmillan and Co. 1881. 
