Primitivism


See also Primitivism (art movement) Primitivism or anarcho-primitivism is both an anti-technological critique of the origins and progress of civilization and a political platform advocating the deindustrialisation of society and the creation of a non-technological civilization based on a primitive hunter-gatherer model. According to anarcho-primitivists, anthropology shows that the shift in the relationship to food from procurement by gathering and hunting to production through agriculture and the subsequent sedentary, surplus based life-way leads to an increase in the complexity of social organization and that this is characterized by more and more hierarchy and coercion. Primitivists hold that for 99% of the existence of the Homo genus humans lived in small nomadic groups who depended on wild foods and natural materials like wood, bone, hide and stone for all of their needs. These band societies are politically, economically, and in gender relations egalitarian. They are organized without hierarchy or coercion. They are thus anarchistic. Approximately 10,000 years ago there began a shift in the relationship between humans and their food. This was a shift from gathering and hunting, to horticulture, then to agriculture, and then to modern industrial agriculture. Primitivists believe that as these infrastructural changes took place they led to changes in the political structures of the societies, from effectively leaderless egalitarian bands, to groups lead by headmen, then by chiefs, and, with the emergence of the state, by kings and in modern times by presidents, parliaments, and dictators. Primitivists advocate the destruction of civilization as we know it. They oppose all its aspects including specialization of tasks/the division of labor and technology. The primitivist movement has connections to radical environmentalism. Primitivism has been notably advocated by John Zerzan, Theodore Kaczynski (the Unabomber) and, to some extent, by Derrick Jensen. During the 1990s the UK magazine Green Anarchist aligned itself with the primitivist movement, although there are many who would describe themselves as green anarchists who would not see themselves as subscribing to this philosophy. Primitivism can also refer to any philosophy which seeks to return to the roots of a larger movement, such as Muslims and Christians who seek to return to the first few centuries of Islam or Christianity.

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bgcolor="#ccccff" | align="center" colspan="4"| Topics related to Anarchism | align="right" | Anarchism symbol
Schools of Anarchism:>
Anarcho-syndicalismIndividualist anarchism > Libertarian socialismAnarcho-Communism > Eco-anarchismGreen anarchism > Crypto-anarchism Primitivism
Anarchism around the world: Anarchism in SpainEnglish-speaking world > Anarchism in Phoenix, Arizona Freetown Christiania
Anarchism in culture: Anarchist economicsAnarchism and Capitalism > Anarcho-capitalismAnarchism and Marxism > Anarchism and religionChristian anarchism > Anarchism and the artsList of creative works > Anarchist symbolismAnarcho-punk > Anarchist law Punk ideology
Anarchism in history: Paris CommuneHaymarket Riot > Spanish RevolutionMay 1968 > WTO Meeting of 1999
Relevant lists: AnarchistsConcepts > Creative WorksInfoshops > Organizations
Related subjects: Anti-globalization
Category:Environment Category:Politics de:Primitivismus

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