Primitives:

 

What do we mean by contemporary "primitives"? It is the politically correct way of referring to contemporary people who are technologically behind our living standards. However, there is also an attitude about our religious beliefs as taught in our schools that promotes science as an advance over fundamentalist religions. (In fact, elite members of our government and academic establishment are concerned that with the collapse of the Soviet Union our next major enemy is fundamentalism.) But our Postmodern view "dictates" that we cannot dictate beliefs so it is not correct to belittle the religious beliefs and culture of a technologically primitive society. So, we refer to them as technologically primitive and stress that this does not mean that their culture is any less complex and beautiful because of their lack of science and wealth. We celebrate this cultural diversity by including their art and artifacts in our "pantheon" of the mythic and prescientific which we should study to see what we might learn from their experience. This is usually done in as exploitive a manner as possible, for tourist reason, or industrial reasons. All of which go a long way to make the break down of the "primitive" culture more subtle and successful.

But we do gain from a study of contemporary primitives. It seems quite correct to make comparisons with prehistoric people and contemporary primitive cultures and use these comparisons to reach conclusions about the presumed cultures of the past. Tools are remarkably identical despite thousands of years. Art is also markedly similar, and it would seem that so is music.

 

This establishes a sense for us of continuation with our distant ancestors and the feeling that within our own communities we have those who still live in remarkably timeless hunter gatherer fashion.

 

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