Audiobook Primitive culture, vol. 2 (of 2) : Researches into the development of mythology, philosophy, religion, language, art, and custom

Edward B. Tylor presents an exhaustive anthropological investigation into the development of culture, focusing primarily on animism as the foundational philosophy of religion. The work traces the evolution of beliefs regarding souls, ghosts, spirits, and deities from primitive societies to higher civilizations. Tylor examines doctrines of the soul's existence after death, exploring two main branches: the transmigration of souls and the belief in an independent future life.

He demonstrates how these concepts originate from the natural interpretations of dreams, visions, and visions of departed ancestors. The text details manes-worship, noting how the veneration of deceased kin forms a universal basis for ancestor worship and influences the later emergence of higher deities and saints in organized religions. Furthermore, Tylor investigates the spiritual interpretation of natural phenomena, demoniacal possession, and fetishism, showing how disease and abnormal mental states were historically attributed to personal spiritual causes. The study proceeds through an extensive survey of the geography of the afterlife, mapping out how different cultures localize the land of the dead on earth, underground, or in the heavens, and contrasting the early continuance-theory with the later development of moral retribution. Throughout the investigation, Tylor emphasizes the continuity of human thought, arguing that many religious rites and superstitious practices found in modern civilizations are direct survivals from earlier savage and barbaric stages of intellectual development.