On a method of investigating the development of institutions: applied to laws of marriage and descent

Readings in Cross-Cultural Methodology • Published In • Pages: 1-25 •
By Tylor, Edward B.

Abstract

This paper, the first cross-cultural study published in 1889 (reprinted here) asserts that tabulation and classification are important methodological tools to study anthropological subjects. The author investigates the development of institutions of marriage and descent, tabulating data on residence, descent, kinship terminology, wife capture, and exogamy.

Samples

Sample Used Coded Data Comment
Ethnographic Reports

Hypotheses (5)

HypothesisSupported
"A relation appears between . . . avoidance customs . . . and . . . residence after marriage" (2)Supported
"Teknonymy [is] in close connection with the custom of the husband's residence in the wife's family [and is] still more closely attached to the practice of ceremonial avoidance by the husband of the wife's family" (4)Supported
"This . . . custom [the couvade] . . . proves to be not merely incidentally an indicator of the tendency of society from maternal to paternal, but the very sign and record of that vast change" (10)Supported
"Hostile capture [of women] . . . exists equally through the three stages of society, from maternal to paternal. . . . Connubial and formal capture belong only to the intermediate stage where paternal institutions are arising and to the later stage where they are established" (13, 14)Supported
"The two institutions, exogamy and classificatory relationships are really connected. . . . [There is a] close causal connexion subsisting between the two institutions" (16, 18)Supported
Documents and Hypotheses Filed By: mas  Amelia Piazza