TO DEFINE PRIMITIVE AND CIVILIZED

To define the word primitive and civilized and what it takes to become one is the main thrust of some recent works such as that of of Ran Prieur (Beyond Civilized and Primitive) and that of Edgardo Civallero (Primitive peoples, Civilized peoples). Upon reading their works, I was reminded of the film Pocahontas, a 1995 animated film that tells the story of Pocahontas and the legends that surrounds her. What struck me though was one of the songs in the movie composed by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz that talks about savages and their being “barely even human” as the song goes. It was during the scene when the natives and the settlers declared an all out war against each other. And both parties believed that the other were to be considered a savage.


Similarly, from the expansion of the Empires of the ancient world, to the European conquest and colonization of America, the age of exploration of the 15th century headed by the Spain and Portugal followed by France, the United Kingdom and even the Netherlands brought about the belief that the territories they were able to explore are primitive and the inhabitants are uncivilized. History then is rich in example where a primitive culture is in brutal battle against a civilized culture. What then are a primitive and a civilized man?


Civilization, as we know it, is the term given to all the things that we see around us. It is something within which have all grown up and includes our personal identity. But when we come to analyze what the word ‘civilized’ means that our difficulties begin. (Whitehouse 1994). To be able to define it, we have to take into consideration everything else. We even have to leap or stand outside of our own understanding and define it according to what others think. Accordingly, we are living in the modern era – the civilized times. The ancient past is the primordial one- the time of the savages, the primitive people. But according to whose belief? Who sets the standards?


The work of Civallero mentions the three-part evolutionary process formulated by Morgan and Tylor. This school of analysis proposed a scheme of evolution from primitive to modern, through which he believed societies progressed. These include three major stages: savagery, barbarism, and civilization. I would say that this theory, focused on social organization and technology. That there is a link between social progress and technology. That society progressed from simple to more complex forms.


Similarly, Prieur had his work focused on the present state of affairs. That civilization of the moment had not much difference from those of the primitive times if we are to talk about changes. That we keep on making mistakes as our ancestors did. The author even mentioned that “but the technological system is a crazy hybrid of everything from "stone age" to "space age" -- thus refuting the very idea that we are locked into ages” clearly illustrates that there is indeed not so much difference.


Putting the idea in my own perspective, I believe that the term ‘civilized’ and ‘primitive’ is only a catch phrase. We might consider a society civilized by the strong showing it demonstrates in the field of technology but the inhabitants are more of savages pulling each other down the corporate ladder. Or consider a primitive society as it is but whose people are living in peace with the member of the community. The term ‘primitive’ and ‘civilized’ is only skin deep. Is it right to say that a person can be considered a savage because of the difference in skin color? Or that the primitive is bizarre, even repulsive, a member of a different race?


We basically have our own understanding of it. To some extent, according to Jonathan David White in his essay published by the journal of American Popular Culture (2002) “Primitivism, the artistic representation and celebration of ancestral or colonized "tribal" peoples, plays an important role in American popular culture and gains its momentum from the philosophy that technology and technological progress is alienating or destructive and that primitive peoples, who have remained closer to nature and thus further from the damaging effects of society, are more noble and pure.”


To sum up, I believe that the classification of societies as ‘primitive’ or ‘civilized’ is biased by one’s belief. It is a collective idea. We cannot classify one society on the other end or on the other because of some classifications that we ourselves created. Civilized behavior is so critically different in actuality from primitive behavior but history again will give us examples of how civilized people can be brutal at times. Such as the times when the native Indians were sent on a journey out of their own lands. Such as the times when the slavery was prevalent in the Americas. We have to think twice.


Civilization progressed but we always have to consider the idea that the primitive people are our ancestors. And that the civilized human condition is inconceivable to primitive peoples. We make mistakes and we fall. We do things for the betterment of things and we progressed. Who knows when we are going to make a mistake again and rise and fall? A society whether civilized or primitive as we classify it is always open to change and collapse. It is of our own volition to discover the monolith of human nature and consider ourselves brothers. Not as savages or civilized and exist in equilibrium.

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Sources:

Civallero, Edgardo. Primitive people, civilized people. Retrieved from http://eprints.rclis.org/4368/1/primitive.pdf.Retrieved January 06, 2008

Pocahontas. www.wikipedia.org/ Pocahontas. Retrieved January 6, 2009

Whitehouse, Ruth and Wilkins, John (1994). The making of civilization. New York: USA.

Menken, Alan (1995). Savages. On pocahontas soundtrack (CD) Walt Disney Records.

Prieur, Ran (2008). Beyond civilized and primitive. Retrieved from ttp://ranprieur.com/essays/beyondciv.html Retrieved January 6, 2009

Zinn, Howard (1999). A people's history of the united states.

Killing the primitive. www.popmatters.com/features/030328-iraq-lanzagorta.
retrieved January 06, 2009