ABSTRACT
The concept of the primitive is as old as civilization because civilized men have always and everywhere been compelled by the conditions of their existence to try to understand their roots and human possibilities. Primitive society may be regarded as a system in equilibrium, spinning kaleidoscopically on its axis but at a relatively fixed point. The search for the primitive is, then, as old as civilization. It is the search for the Utopia of the past, projected into the future, with civilization being the middle term. The more immediate modern origin of the idea of the primitive is in the European Enlightenment. The Age of Discovery, which was also the origin of colonialism, provided the opportunity for direct scrutiny of radically different peoples, the forerunner of field work and participant observation. Modern anthropology, is the natural heir of the Enlightenment, the axial age of contemporary civilization.
