The Reinvention of Primitive Society: Transformations of a Myth

by Adam Kuper

Overview

Adam Kuper’s iconoclastic intellectual history argues that the idea of “primitive society” is a western myth. The “primitive” is imagined as the opposite of the “civilised”. But this is a protean myth. As ideas about civilisation change, so the image of primitive society must be adjusted.

By way of fascinating account of classic texts in anthropology, ancient history and law, Kuper reveals how this myth underpinned academic research and inspired political programmes. Its ancestry is traced back to classical western beliefs about barbarians and savages, and Kuper also tackles the latest version of the myth, the idea of a global identity of “indigenous peoples”.

The Reinvention of Primitive Society is a key text in the history of anthropology, and will interest anyone who has puzzled about the very idea of “primitive society” – and so, by implication, about “civilisation”.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781138282650
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	02/14/2017
Series:	Routledge Classic Texts in Anthropology
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	236
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Adam Kuper is a centennial professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK, and a visiting professor at Boston University, USA. A specialist on the ethnography of Southern Africa, he has written widely on the history and theory of anthropology.

Table of Contents

PART ONE: THE IDEA OF PRIMITIVE SOCIETY

1. The Myth of Primitive Society
2. Barbarian, Savage, Primitive

PART TWO: ANCIENT LAW, ANCIENT SOCIETY AND TOTEMISM

3. Henry Maine’s Patriarchal Theory
4. Lewis Henry Morgan and Ancient Society
5. The Question of Totemism

PART THREE: EVOLUTION AND DIFFUSION – BOAS, RIVERS AND RADCLIFFE-BROWN

6. The Boasians and the Critique of Evolutionism
7. From Rivers to Radcliffe-Brown

PART FOUR: DESCENT AND ALLIANCE

8. Descent Theory: a Phoenix From the Ashes
9. Towards the Intellect: Alliance Theory and Totemism

PART FIVE: BACK TO THE BEGINNING

10. The return of the native

11. Conclusion