Sheet of paper with schemata on the subject of marriage and descent

Collection type: Object
Description: Sheet of paper with schemata on the subject of marriage and descent
Long description: Large sheet of paper featuring stencilled words and schemata on the subject of laws of marriage and descent, labelled 'Figure 4', made to illustrate a lecture by E. B. Tylor
Geographical reference: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Europe > Northern Europe > United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Cultural groups: English
Person: Maker Alfred Robinson (presumed); Field collector Edward Burnett Tylor; PRM source Edward Burnett Tylor
Date / Period: Date made: Circa 06/1888
Date collected: By 1917
Acquisition information: Donated: 1917 Found unentered: 01/1944
Materials and processes: Material Paper Plant, Material Pigment, Process Drawn
Object numbers: Accession number: 1944.1.84.11
Research and responses: This is a large sheet of paper featuring stencilled words and schemata on the subject of laws of marriage and descent, labelled 'FIG. 4', understood to have been made to illustrate a lecture (or lectures) by Prof. Edward B. Tylor. [PG 05/03/2014]
Seven of the eight items in this particular series [1944.1.84 .6 - .13] are undated, but one of the items [1944.1.84 .6] has been (indirectly) dated in replacing another [1944.1.84 .13] in November 1888; the rest of those in this series can therefore be assumed to have been made around the same time, i.e. circa 1888. In fact, however, it possible to specify the dating of this series of items [1944.1.84 .6 - .13] even more precisely. It is recorded that Tylor delivered a public lecture 'On a Method of Investigating the Development of Institutions applied to Laws of Marriage and Descent' in the University Museum in Oxford on 7 June 1888: Barbara W. Freire-Marreco, 'A Bibliography of Edward Burnett-Tylor from 1861 to 1907', in H. Balfour et al, Anthropological Essays Presented to Edward Burnett Tylor in Honour of his 75th Birthday Oct. 2 1907 (Oxford, 1907), p.395. (A report of this lecture, 'Dr. Tylor on Marriage Systems and Laws of Descent', can be found in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 18 (1889), pp.91-92.) Tylor is recorded as having given (presumably) the same lecture at the British Association in Bath on 7 September 1888; and at the Anthropological Institute in London on 13 November 1888: Barbara W. Freire-Marreco, 'A Bibliography of Edward Burnett-Tylor from 1861 to 1907', p.395. One deduces therefore that the series of schemata was prepared during the first half of 1888 in readiness for Tylor's lecture at the University Museum on 7 June; and the illustrations were presumably used again for Tylor's two later lectures on the same subject (with the exception of [1944.1.84 .6] which, the annotation makes clear, replaced [1944.1.84 .13 ] for his November lecture at the Anthropological Institute). The schemata also provided the basis for the published images which accompany Tylor's article on the subject: Edward B. Tylor, 'On a Method of Investigating the Development of Institutions: Applied to Laws of Marriage and Descent, Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 18 (1889), pp.245-272. (See Related Documents File.) [PG 05/03/2014]
Associated publications: This schemata (though not this particular drawing of it) has been published in Edward B. Tylor, 'On a Method of Investigating the Development of Institutions; Applied to Laws of Marriage and Descent', Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 18 (1889), p.255, figure 4. [PG 05/03/2014]

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