Primitivism

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The primitivism seeks a social return to industrial pre- and often pre- agricultural of living and production conditions.

Primitivism is primarily understood as a utopian current that links the ideas of anarchism with those of the Cynics . A return to a biological "originality" of the human being is sought. The notion that the development of culture, especially of industrial civilization , is to be regarded as progressive is called into question; Furthermore, the political idea of civilization is perceived from a perspective critical of ideology .

Many staunch primitivists live a minimalist simple life . Some withdraw from modern civilization as dropouts alone or together with others as a commune as far as possible. Others become active and spread primitivist ideas in society or even try by force to bring about a revolution that is supposed to destroy the industrial system and its modern technology , for example the Luddites in England at the beginning of the 19th century or the one who became known as the “Unabomber” American terrorist Theodore Kaczynski .

Alternatively, the term also denotes a school of ancient economic and social history, which postulates that ancient economies are based on subsistence economy , not market-oriented structures, i.e. an essentially transaction-free economy.

theory

Based on anthropological sources, primitivists assume that hunter-gatherer societies are less affected by violence, war and epidemics.

According to the theory of primitivism, only the division of labor would enable the accumulation of economic potential and thus the emergence of power relations . This would then result in the historical appearance of an authoritarian culture of the patriarchal and its excesses, custom and morality , with custom being the lived morality. The regularities are classically integrated into a totalitarian worldview of a religious or esoteric design.

The man-made means of controlling the environment , technology , is described as severely alienating . In its growth, technological development also reflects and drives social alienation in a dialectical interplay, which since the industrial revolution, for example , has been reflected in the production relationships with the temporal and horizontal division of work processes (see Frederick Winslow Taylor ).

In fact, according to primitivist ideas, technology is the new religion , the belief in progress is hope , and modern gods and idols are staged in the mass media. But Christian morality has also made its way into the new era of liberalism and fulfills well-known functions in its modern Protestant incarnations, even if certain classical manifestations such as the family structure seem to be slowly saying goodbye.

As a logical consequence, the neo-primitive person would find his way back to his “inner ape” in his analysis in response to these imbalances, in order to free his instinctual structure from the fetters that Freud so eloquently described. The work of the two sexologists and Freud students Otto Gross and Wilhelm Reich in response to Freud's insights contributed significantly to the later sexual revolution and the relative further liberation of the ego .

The primitivist openly recognizes his primacy and wants to live in free association and open sexuality without private ownership of matter or person .

Influence on Marx

In Marxist theory there is a connection between early romantic, “primitist” criticism of civilization and enlightenment ideas of progress. The elimination of the division of labor should not happen here by returning to a primitive primitive society, but by returning to its social structures on a high technical level. Marx expects “redemption” from the constraints of civilization from the “development of the productive forces”, that is, the differentiation of the division of labor, combined with the replacement of human labor by machines (automation) and thus the shortening of the labor required for a living.

Attempts to use it

The philosopher Max Stirner in his self-empowerment of the individual, Wilhelm Reich the founder of scientifically unrecognized orgone therapy and the anarchist Freud student Otto Gross had a tendency to primitivism.

The American terrorist Theodore Kaczynski , who became known as the “Unabomber”, attempted to draw attention to the problematic consequences of modern technology and to unleash a primitivist revolution with the help of letter bomb attacks on people who were connected with the then new technologies.

Primitivism in art

Even in the Enlightenment literature of the Sturm und Drang era, an increased empathy with nature could be discerned. In the following romantic period, which expanded such tendencies in response to the industrial revolution , the first affinity with human nature could be discerned.

So wrote William Blake in A Little Girl Lost in 1789 :

Children of the future age,
Reading this indignant page,
Know that in a former time
Love, sweet love, was thought a crime.

Children of a future age


Reading this angry page, know that in days gone by,
love, sweet love, was a crime.

The Situationist International coined some primitivist, artistic slogans, e.g. B. with “Under the pavement is the beach” (Sous les pavés, la plage). The Berlin author collective “AS Ambulanzen” expanded and updated this approach: “ Why we don't do it on the street. The beach lies beneath the pavement, the underground beneath it, the state lies in the street, the house stands on the roadside, behind it the tree, the street full of cameras, the nation wakes up in the street, we have the street in our heads and stay in bed "

Primitivism in Classical Studies

The primitivism of Moses I. Finley and other historians is a reaction to the unreflective assumption of the classical studies of antiquity that the (ancient) economies can only develop in such a way, namely grow and increase their productivity, as present-day experience spontaneously suggests. Finley assumes that the ancient upper classes did not participate actively in the economy and limited themselves to their land ownership. The land trade was rather insignificant, the slave labor, however, was fundamental for all areas, but not very productive.

literature

Web links

Wiktionary: primitive  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "an exploration into primitivist theory" . With further links. Retrieved May 23, 2011
  2. ^ Karl Strobel: The Economy of the Roman Empire: Economic History in the Controversy between Primitivism and Modernism , Poznań 2004.
  3. ^ Zerzan, John: Running on Emptiness: The Pathology of Civilization . Feral House, 2002, ISBN 0-922915-75-X .
  4. ^ Sahlins, Marshall: Stone Age Economics . Routledge, 2003, ISBN 0-415-32010-0 .
  5. ↑ Richard Lee : The! Kung San: Men, Women and Work in a Foraging Society . Cambridge University Press, 1979, ISBN 0-521-29561-0 .
  6. ↑ Schultz, Emily; Lavenda, Robert: The Consequences of Domestication and Sedentism .
  7. ^ Service Elman : The Hunters . Prentice Hall, 1972.
  8. ↑ Kelly, Robert L .: The Foraging Spectrum: Diversity in Hunter-Gatherer Lifeways . Smithsonian Institution, Washington 1995, ISBN 1-56098-465-1 .
  9. ^ Karl Marx: The capital. Third volume: The overall process of capitalist production. MEW 25, p. 826
  10. ↑ See on this: AS Ambulanzen, The beach is under the pavement . January 22, 2001
  11. ↑ Armin Eich: The political economy of ancient Greece (6th-3rd century BC) , Weimar 2006.