Primitive totemic belief, line and shape, symmetrical arrangements on the Plain, long-house bedding arrangements.. Tribes are systems that aren't civilized, if by civilization one means civil society of the Greek polis. Urban being the word, beloved of the great cultures of the Mediterranean and obviously not unknown to the mesoamericans.
But Plains Indians or the Sioux of the lakes found no need in their trapping and fishing for extended conurbations. Farming was practiced - see Journey - so if it's not civilization it's also not the woodsman-type of Messner-Loebs yarns (prev.)
Primitive in my lexicon means the lack of urban conurbations. By the same standard, cowboys of the west who worked the range and rode into town on weekends were primitive stock.
In a civilization of advancing conurbations, it seems everyone seems to feel they ought to be advancing in tandem with everyone else. This seems to lead to odd confusions, such as that the term "Redskins" on NFL's Washington DC franchise is demeaning.
This was carried to ludicrous heights (or depths) by the Cherokee Nation who recently objected to Jeep's use of its tribal name. Chief Chuck Hoskins said,
It does not honor us.. The best way..is to learn about our sovereign government, our role in this country..language and have dialogue with federally recognized tribes on cultural appropriateness.
This seems to be confusing two different things (as per); one is the story of American Indians, the other is a word on a product.
A word can.honor by association, assuming Jeeps are desirable autos. The notion that a word by definition demeans by its association with the products of civilization is bizarre.
The only thing I can think is that Redskins and Cherokee have connotations of savagery to the average citizen. The implication really is that savagery is "bad" and civilization "good", and Chief Hoskins, like the political representative he is, will tend to downplay the " bad".
However, this is a bit offensive to the story of the West, which has been written in blood. Both sides were equally savage.
The other assumption is usually that civilizations advance for the better inevitably, so I think it's worth looking more closely at what this word primitive might mean.
As Paul Radin has attested (along with Levi-Strauss, natch), tribal Indian arrangements are symmetrical in belief. The story of a north western tribe is symbolized in animal spirit guardians on elaborate totem carvings.
Around this cultural centre, there is a symmetry of hunter-gatherer/agricultural patterns; blood on one side, life on the other.
Symmetries are evident in kinship patterns and the male/female, sun/moon opposites. To Radin and Levi-Strauss, primitivan Man lives closer to nature in kinship groups and beliefs; knowledge and practices are related to that fact.
The assumption that civilization is advancing towards a greater truth is contradicted by these studies of structural.relations in the primitive mind.
Primitive in that context simply means a living relationship to nature or to the timelines in nature. There is no difference in the minds, only in the type of things the mind studies.
Taking this a bit further, civilization seems to be heading to the idea that by studying information one can arrive at closer and closer approximations to reality. One recent example is the decoding of protein folding by an Oxford cyber-bio group - see HB150 HB147 P150 This could lead to synthesis of novel proteins.
As previously noted, though, information in the modern order (sun or electromagnetism) enters a two-tone or parallel line, parallel reality of numbers. Basically ones and zeros that are used by algorithms.
The parallel lines of electromagnetism enable detection (see prev on x-ray diffraction, DNA). Proteins automatically conform to a shape, but entering a parallel reality of parallel lines (number, algorithm) seems to have some success in predicting - see the Oxford link cited.
Entering the parallel reality means going away from the automatic process of action. While the automatic process - the conformation of proteins - is strong and simple, numbers create complexity and a flawed dynamic. Flaws sort of appeal to the ego that has to work out solutions.
But inside a cell clearly the processes are automatic, conforming to shape and in the process temporal. Clearly anything temporal is undetectable by the method of parallel lines (reflection, refraction, diffraction).
Actions tend to follow circular patterns and spirals that are just a fact of nature - see multiple examples in UVS website.
Spiral shapes are strong; DNA is a shape first, and information second. The strength of shape itself supplies information in the temporal sphere, and the development of cells in the body - morphogenesis - is principally a temporal phenomenon, rather than being dependent on information.
Physically, what I mean can be seen in artists drawings. See nose, eyes, cheeks of BWS Medusa VII. Similarly, lips, nose, eyes, cheeks of cover to Bilal Nikopol Trilogy. The artists are drawing concentric circles to enable them to form the shapes.
With the spiral shapes of automatic development comes strength and proportion. These ancient and primitive facts are lacking in a numerical universe that attracts the ego of acolytes. The primitive or Shamanic mind may not be that different to modern mind, but the difference lies in the use of intuition to respond to the active strength of natural processes (herbs, aromatic compounds).
So it is really on the opposite trajectory to the ego of acolytes that is attracted solely to information. By analysing the shapes of proteins and the structures of living things to such an extent, the boffins essentially end up with no shape - pure information. They enter a parallel reality that is essentially an illusion of parallel lines, reflections that are the ones and zeros of algorithms (see prev Jirel Meets Magic).
The basic reason for the illusion is that information does not produce shape. The opposite is true; shape produces information.
Proteins are molecular shapes that carry out all the body's sophisticated metabolism. The information they supply is totally vast; from hormonal (time-based) control.of growth, to manufacture of new proteins from RNA.
In an exact analogous way primitive societies use shapes to determine the meaning of information. In this case the shapes are not the messenger-proteins but messenger-animals as spirit guides on totem.poles.
This is the way stories are transmitted (culturally). Modern advance is at a dead end because any further advance into analysing of shape takes one further into the illusory universe of information, the mirror of illusions.
"They" don't realize this because the ego is attracted by numbers and the "solutions" they engender. The advance is only real to the ego.
Apart from.the stories of physical shape, there is also decay and the cycles of life and death. There is a negative side that the mirror of illusions does not reflect. Both growth and decay are things that happen inside time and are literally composed of time.
History has negative aspects, and this is part of the story. There was the journey out of bondage of Southern Blacks following the civil war. The song "Follow the Drinking Gourd" (Havens) represents the traditional route towards the north, or the Big Dipper (in Ursa Major) that points to Polaris.
The lyrics are eloquent of the rustic trail in days gone by. The lifestyle, the rural lifestyle is primitive, and, as Radin and Levi-Strauss attest, the mind is the same only with different subject-matter.
The shape of things is primitive and associated with fortune (see HB165). The dead-end of advance will finally have to acknowledge that truth, or be lost in the mirror of illusions.