ABSTRACT
To experience the primitive is to find oneself in the grip of a passion or presence that seems to come from beyond oneself. The experience of the primitive may arise in relationships that are familiar, enduring, formative, and yet outside one's immediate influence. The primitive-modern lives in a world enchanted by presences that are more felt than visible, but that are nonetheless occasionally even seen and touched. To experience the primitive is to live in a social universe in which spiritual influences can travel freely and not only influence one's fortunes but inhabit one's inner self. To experience the primitive is to be in the presence and under the influence of another person regardless of the circumstances of time and space. The sacred provides a model of the primitive: one that is idealized, or sanitized, and thereby reduced to imaginable and manageable proportions.
