ABSTRACT
We begin with a conclusion: the primitive does not refer to a classification of people or of a race, or any other cultural subset. No people describe themselves as primitive; the term is used to denigrate, and thus assumes a tremendous burden for its bearers. The primitive is often viewed as the antithesis of the modern – close to nature; soiled and devoid of technological sophistication; persisting in an unreflective, child-like state of elemental immediacy, all impulses and reactions. Primitivism, by contrast, should be viewed as the necessary invention of the modern.
