19th Century

The 19th Century was a time of great change. Population growth changed from linear to cubic to exponential. Monarchies fell. The role of religion in government withered in the West. Technological progress was astounding, and the status of science elevated. Secular philosophies florished, and secular sciences expanded dramatically. Psychology was established. Anthropology was established. The list goes on: modern geology, organic chemistry, electricity, photography. This amazing age also saw the publication of the Origin of Species, a work that firmly established humanity's connection with the rest of life and influenced many secular thinkers.

Hypothesis of mechanism for evolution promoted by Lamarck 1803ADThe swan song of creation science 1812ADFirst photographs 1826ADFirst prehuman fossil found (not immediately recognized) 1829ADGeology proves an old Earth 1830ADNatural selection discussed 1831AD'Fossil man' hypothesized 1841ADChambers: Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation 1844ADGorillas discovered by the scientific community 1847ADSecond prehuman fossil (not immediately recognized) 1848ADCommunist Mannifesto penned 1848ADPleistocene archaeology discovered with 'Pleistocene Man' 1849ADFirst ethnography describing kinship terms and cultural structure 1851ADNeanderthal cranium discovered and recognized as important 1856ADWallace writes letter about natural selection to Darwin 1858ADOrigin of Species 1859AD'Psychic unity of mankind' discussed 1860ADEarths age stated to be between 20 and 400 million years old 1863ADCultural anthropology book 1861ADHomo neanderthalensis named 1864ADHerber Spencer conceives social Darwinism 1864ADCulture defined in its modern sense 1874ADFrancis Galton coins phrase Nature vs. nurture 1874ADAthiesm and nihilism 1882ADHomo erectus discovered 1891ADPerception of the unconscious mind 1896ADAmerican anthropology founded 1896AD

1861AD Cultural anthropology book

Edward Burnett Tylor writes and ethnographic history and enthology of Mexico in Anahuac: Or Mexico and the Mexicans, Ancient and Modern, which many consider to be the first cultural anthropology book. Tylor takes a position of cultural relativeism, that we should look at practices in the context of their society rather than jusdging them through the lens of our own.

 

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