Talk:Primitive Culture (book)

message: This article is still a bit politically correct. When given a choice most people, including anthropologists, prefer a culture with "accumulative innovation" such as antibiotics, cars and central heating to a culture with accumulative innovation such as tribal dance, beads and ancestor spirit beliefs. Art LaPella 17:22, 24 April 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: "Political correctness" is often used as a phrase to discipline and demote the views of others--to suggest that others are behaving in an ideological fashion, while the other people is more neutral.  It's a phrase heavily used by the American right to politicize and challenge the views of the American left.  Moreover, whether people enjoy air conditioning more than beads is irrelevant.  I submit to you that what a lot of "modern" people want is what their televisions tell them to want.  --Smilo Don 17:40, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

text: No, this article is absolutely politically correct - ie. a quibbling over semantics. It's entire focus is on the term "primitive culture" and has no information whatsoever on the actual subject matter. At the very least, this article needs a disambiguation link to the relevant article concerning so called primitive cultures ("neolithic cultures", perhaps, would be the proper term). Rocker85 13:40, 30 September 2011 (UTC)

text: This IS a good example of political correctness. It's true that the right has started to call any view that doesn't amount to kicking everybody out of the country or dropping bombs "politically correct". That doesn't change the fact that the word used to mean something: a silly social prohibition against using some term; i.e. the social equivalent of censorship. The announced reason is that it offends someone, the real reason (which everybody knows) is that it allows certain people to control the discourse. My big problem is that although I work academically in the area I simply have no good way of referring inclusively to a category of cultures that anyone would be able to identify, at least not without using very cumbersome formulations such as "extant pre-neolithic societies" or some such. Why not "primitive"? They ARE primitive. What do you think primitive means? It's not necessarily bad to be primitive as long as you don't think the reason is stupidity. It's plain silly not to be able to say that a stoneage culture is more primitive than a spaceage society - it is by any reasonable measurement! It's cultural relativism taken to its most nauseating vacuous edge, that's what it is.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.16.140.71 (talk) 18:32, 8 November 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree, I was just about to use the term, then thought "hmm, this might not be the accepted term anymore, but what else can I say that isn't cumbersome, imprecise or unintelligible?" Turns out there is no such alternative. Essentially this is the same technique that totalitarian societies use in an attempt to control people's hearts and minds, and that was caricatured by Orwell's newspeak. Actually, there are places where the term is still used in its original meaning: check Primitive Irish. While German primitiv cannot be used in that sense anymore and seems to have become entirely pejorative (barring attempts at reclaiming), English primitive has retained at least traces of its former, neutral meaning, therefore I will continue using it. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 14:58, 17 November 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: I think it is not a question of politically correctness (offending or not someone), it is simply a question of correctness. The term primitive is biased with a negative assessment (or positive sometimes, anyway, has a quality appraisal). Maybe a definition could say that primitive culture may be very rich on technology (knowledge about adapting in one own enviroinment), less about science (having general theories about reality, but then, what about religions, that can't be judged, or mathematics/astrology, an ancient knowledge). Primitive carries an appreciation, and so, could be questioned. There are some distincitive and firm points that discriminate a primitive culture from another? Technology (industrial revolution or simply pre-iron age), social organization (tribal), oral knowledge trasmission, et cetera. Someone knows if, scientifically, is an obsolete term, that belongs to last century? --Filoberto (talk) 14:01, 29 January 2015 (UTC)
thread_title: Political correctness in the article

message: I've removed the following material, which was added recently, from the article because I feel it does not belong in such an article, which is about the term primitive culture and societies characterised by simple technology and low population density or low numbers of members (perhaps that's a useable alternative – low-tech culture?) in general, not specifically Native Americans, who form only a relatively small portion of the totality of cultures considered primitive in modern history. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 20:56, 3 March 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Material removed from the article 

message: *
*1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
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--Pawyilee (talk) 15:40, 4 March 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: PS: Experimental archaeology, not to be confused with primitive technology not concerned with any archaeological or historical evidence, gains hands-on experience in how "hi-tech" primitive culture is and always has been. --Pawyilee (talk) 15:49, 4 March 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: I doubt that this, however impressive it may be, is what people have in mind when saying hi-tech. Anyway, are you essentially agreeing that there is no alternative for "primitive" in this context? "Pre-industrial", "pre-modern" or "pre-literary" and the like don't cut it, either, because "primitive", like "developped", is a relative term. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 00:44, 13 March 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes; yes. --Pawyilee (talk) 11:01, 13 March 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Indigenous Peoples, hi-tech 

message: This article is reads like a good start and then someone stopped writing. Where is critique of the term. Modern usage, arguments for using it, arguments against using it?--Inayity (talk) 09:20, 8 January 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  incomplete article 

message: This article is absolute nonsense. It has no foundation and is meaningless words put together for the sake of writing something. Please re-write or delete, don't just include an article for the sake of it. Belittles Wikipedia !  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.168.181.119 (talk) 04:54, 5 January 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Re-Write or Delete 

message: Shouldn't the title of this article be "Primitive Culture" (title case) since it is about a book? I ab not sure how to change a title. User-duck (talk) 00:20, 12 January 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Title change 

message: :The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion. 
The result of the move request was: (non-admin closure) MOVED to Primitive Culture (book).
No obvious consensus for what should be done at this title, so I'll leave the redirect but anyone should feel welcome to change it per this discussion.  User:力 (power~enwiki, π, ν) 19:30, 23 September 2021 (UTC)
replies: text: Primitive culture →  – Change capitalization to title of book Editor2020 (talk) 04:09, 14 September 2021 (UTC)
replies: text:  I was thinking the same. Maybe redirect them both to Civilization#History, or Uncontacted peoples? Whatever the target is, both of them should have the same target. —usernamekiran (talk) 16:15, 21 September 2021 (UTC)
replies: text: The first of those is probably too broad, the second too specific... so maybe a disambiguation page listing a few such targets, plus the book, makes the most sense? Lennart97 (talk) 08:20, 23 September 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Requested move 14 September 2021 

message: The redirect Primitive cultures has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at  until a consensus is reached.  GnocchiFan (talk) 16:51, 27 December 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  "[[:Primitive cultures]]" listed at [[Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion|Redirects for discussion]]