Primitive culture

In older texts and discussions, a primitive culture is one that lacks major signs of  or. For instance, it might lack a written language or advanced technology and have a limited and isolated population. The term was used by writers to describe foreign cultures contacted by European colonists and explorers. It is also the title of a major work by, "the founder of anthropology", in which he defines religion as "" which, in turn, he defines by reference to contemporary indigenous and other religious data as "the belief in spirits". Another defining characteristic of primitive cultures is a greater amount of time than in more complex societies.

Many early sociologists and other writers portrayed primitive cultures as noble&mdash;s&mdash;and believed that their lack of technology and less integrated economies made them ideal examples of the correct human lifestyle. Among these thinkers were, who is most frequently associated with the idea of the noble savage based on his ', and , who in ' praised the economic organization of primitive societies as less destructive than the. The belief that primitive cultures are ideal is often described as ; branches of this theory include and.

Many of these writers assumed that contemporary indigenous peoples or their cultures were comparable to the earliest humans or their cultures. Some people still make this assumption. The word "primitive" comes from the Latin "primus" meaning "first", and it was believed by anthropologists that the so-called primitive contemporary cultures preserved a state unchanged since ""  or  times. This assumption has proved to be false as bands have just as much accumulated innovation as do "modern"  cultures. The differences are because most of the cultural innovation in or  cultures is in areas of ceremonial, arts, beliefs, ritual and tradition which usually do not leave cultural artefacts, tools or weapons. The assumption too that hunter-gatherer bands and shifting horticultural have more in common than they have with more complex  or  societies is also denied by many modern archaeologists. Close examination of differences in culture show that these types of cultures are as different as they are from modern urban and civilised cultures.

Though belief in the "noble savage" has not disappeared, describing a culture as primitive is often considered factually incorrect and offensive today. Use of the term, especially in academic settings, has thus diminished.

Further readings

 * , In Search of the Primitive, Transaction Publishers,U.S. 1987, ISBN 087855582X
 * , The Reinvention of Primitive Society. Transformations of a Myth, Taylor & Francis Ltd. 2005, ISBN 0415357616