Final answer:
Tylor used an evolutionary approach in 'Primitive Culture' to relate the development of religion to the progression of human culture from 'savagery' to 'civilization'. His cultural evolutionism viewed religions as evolving from simple to complex systems, paralleling other cultural changes such as in economy and technology.
Step-by-step explanation:
Edward Burnett Tylor in his seminal work Primitive Culture applied evolutionary theory to the study of human cultures, specifically to the anthropology of religion. Tylor was a proponent of cultural evolutionism, an approach which posits that cultures evolve from simple to complex forms over time. In his view, religions evolved from animism and polytheism to monotheism and scientific thought, paralleling developments in other cultural areas such as economic production and social organization. Tylor's work emphasized the progression of cultural beliefs and practices from a 'savage' state towards 'civilization', which for Victorian scholars, was seen as the epitome of cultural development.
Despite Tylor's evolutionary framework, it is important to note that contemporary anthropologists now regard these theories of unilineal evolution as overly simplistic and reflective of ethnocentric biases. Instead, they recognize that cultural development is unique to each society and often involves complex interactions with other cultures, rather than following a predefined path towards a 'civilized' state. This shift away from Tylor's evolutionary model occurred with the rise of historical particularism and an emphasis on cultural relativism, as advocated by anthropologists like Franz Boas.