Final answer:
The 19th-century idea that all cultures originated from a single cultural center is associated with the concept of unilineal cultural evolution, which has since been discredited in favor of understanding that cultures evolve uniquely and through interactions with each other.
Step-by-step explanation:
The 19th-century idea that all cultures originated from a few or even a single cultural center(s) is often associated with the concept of unilineal cultural evolution. Proponents like Edward Tylor believed in a progression of cultural stages from 'savagery' to 'civilization' that every society would undergo, implicitly placing European culture at the apex of this developmental scale. This perspective, while ethnocentric and not supported by the actual historical and cultural diversity worldwide, was part of a larger trend of Eurocentric views prevalent in the 19th century that included ideas related to orientalism, primitivism, and the misevaluation of non-European cultures as less developed. The theory has since been largely discredited, with anthropologists like Franz Boas arguing that individual cultures evolve based on their own histories and in constant interaction with others, not in a predetermined linear fashion.