Sir Edward Burnett Tylor, the son of Joseph and Harriet (Skipper) Tylor, was born on October 2, 1832, in Camberwell, London, England. His father, a prosperous Quaker industrialist who owned a brass foundry, sent Tylor to Grove House, a private school operated by the Society of Friends. Due to his nonconformist religion, Tylor was prohibited from attending Oxford or Cambridge. Thus, at the age of sixteen, he entered the family business. Six years later, diagnosed with consumption and advised to travel, he set sail for the United States. After spending a year in the southern United States, he visited Cuba. While on an omnibus during his trip, he heard the familiar Quaker use of "thou" and subsequently struck up a friendship with Henry Christy, an English banker and amateur ethnologist. Christy invited Tylor on a four-month trip to Mexico, an experience from which Tylor published his first book Anahuac: or...