PRIMITIVES. - Until about 1860 the question of "regression" or "degeneration" was still alive, that is, whether the primitive peoples, who were then called "savages," of whom by that time such abundant documents were available, should be considered as remnants of decadent peoples (theory of degeneration) or as peoples whose cultural development had suffered an arrest (theory of stagnation).

SUMMARY: I. Primitive cultures. - II. The original culture. - III. Primary cultures. - IV. Secondary cultures. - V. Tertiary cultures. - VI. The diffusion of cultures in the various parts of the world.

I. PRIMITIVE CULTURES

For several decades J. Boucher de Perthes had been carrying out excavations in the valley of the Somme, where he had found remains of lithic artifacts (knives, axes and other tools) earlier than any written information about the inhabitants of those regions, remains that he considered to belong to a prehistoric man.

Having seen as useless the attempts to convince French geologists of the importance of his results, in the spring of 1859 he invited Sir Charles Lyell, who was then the greatest authority in geology, to visit his excavations. The latter recognized the importance of Boucher de Perthes's results and took his side. Such authoritative support decided the acceptance in the scientific field of Boucher de Perthes's results and gave impetus to numerous excavations in all the countries of Europe, from which the existence of prehistoric man emerged ever more confirmed. Thus the question of the primitive peoples was resolved. They were to be considered as peoples who had suffered a stagnation in their development. As further confirmation of this conclusion, in the numerous excavations, with rare exceptions, no traces of higher cultures were found among the primitive peoples. Nor could the objection be admitted that these were civilizations that had regressed because of an unfavorable geographical environment, such as the lack of metals, of plants suitable for making fabrics, of domestic animals, because often the environment would have been favorable to development.

Later archaeology and linguistics would further confirm the existence of prehistoric man. Also in the mi-

PRIMITIVES - Form of dwelling among populations belonging to the original cultures. The Vedda generally do not build huts but shelter under rocks - Island of Ceylon.(from M. Gusinds, *Die Yamanae*, *Mölling near Vienna 1937*, fig. II)

PRIMITIVES - Exterior of the hut where the initiations take place - Yamana.(from M. Gusinde, Die Yamana, Mödling near Vienna 1937, fig. 13)

better conditions, the remains of ancient civilizations do not go back further than the 5th millennium B.C., but almost always descend from the 3rd to the 1st and even lower. Beyond these chronological limits, excavations provide only prehistoric documentation.

The phases of development of the languages of peoples who reached a high degree of civilization (Indo-Europeans, Semites, Hamites, Ural-Altaic and others still) are now known at least from the first documents of writing onward; but no point of this development can be taken as the basis of the languages of primitive peoples. Even when a sure kinship can be established between the languages of the p. and the languages of peoples with a great civilization - as for the Hamitic languages of North and East Africa with respect to the ancient Egyptian language, or as the languages of the peoples of Tibet and Burma with respect to Chinese - the primitive languages always have more archaic forms than the most ancient forms of the languages of peoples of great civilizations, or else the two forms are such that they can only be derived from a common form, more ancient than either. Whence it is seen that even in these cases the point of irradiation of the related languages is prior to the formation of the great cultures. The hypothesis of degenerations becomes even more untenable if one thinks of the many languages of primitive peoples which have not the remotest relation to the languages of peoples who reached a great civilization.

Primitive peoples are therefore peoples who have undergone a stasis in their development. But this does not mean that they have had no development and are absolutely without history. They too have cultural elements (tools, weapons, use of fire, language, family, social, ethical and religious institutions) that demonstrate intelligence, thought, development, creative force, that is, civilization: the p. are peoples of scant civilization, poor in history, relatively primitive, but not without civilization, without history, absolutely primitive. No people is in a purely natural state; all have had a creative force and formed a certain civilization, but at a given point they stopped in their development (for the conditions that favored such an arrest, v. ETNOLOGIA. For a deeper treatment of the progress and regress of the p., cf. W. Schmidt and W. Koppers, Völker und Kulturen, Regensburg 1924, p. 41 ff.).

The concept of p. thus takes on a value very different from that commonly attributed to it. It is not easy, indeed it is impossible, to formulate an absolute criterion on the basis of which a population or a culture can be included in the concept of "p." However, perhaps no invention has had such a profound influence on man's thought and on the development of civilization as writing (v.). This invention had a decisive influence in the history of humanity and brought still poor cultures to the level of great cultures. Therefore writing is the most comprehensive division that can be made of human civilization. To the first period belong peoples without writing, which we shall call "p.," characterized by a still naive thought; to the second, peoples with writing, characterized by critical and reflective thought (v. ETNOLOGIA).

Before setting out the characteristics of the various cultures, let it be recalled that the basic concept of modern ethnology is the historical method, which first seeks to gather the greatest possible amount of information on the p., then groups the populations that have a common cultural foundation into areas or cultural cycles that are called cultures, and finally asks whether populations often separated by great distances but with a similar cultural foundation were not once united. Similarities are no longer explained by readily accepting convergence, whereby identical objects or institutions would have arisen independently in different parts of the world, but an attempt is made to discover whether there have not been migrations of different peoples or at least of the cultural elements that present similarities. In fact the historical method has demonstrated that even in primitive societies many changes have occurred as a result of immigration and not through an intrinsic development. Contact between different tribes gave rise to different mixtures of cultures (v. ETNOLOGIA).

II. THE ORIGINARY CULTURE

The designation "original culture" is to be understood not in the absolute sense of a primordial culture - a culture that is not directly accessible but only by induction - but in the sense of the most archaic culture ethnologically ascertainable. To this belong the peoples who live for the most part in regions difficult of access, such as the Pygmies who dwell on the edges of the forests of the Congo.

They live in small groups, far from one another, on what nature offers them: hunting and gathering. They do not practice agriculture and do not raise livestock; they shelter from the weather by building huts or else simple screens or shelters of branches. Their clothing is reduced to a loincloth. The bow with a round cross-section is their weapon; living in the forest they use wood to make the tools that serve their daily life; whence one may speak of a wood age prior to the stone age. They recognize a Supreme Being, creator of the world, conceived as father and protector of morality. This God generally dwells in heaven and receives sacrifices of first-fruits. Magic, animism and the cult of the dead are little developed. The family is founded on monogamy, with equal rights between man and woman. They recognize the private ownership of tools, weapons, ornaments and implements, that is, of everything that is the fruit of individual labor. The land on which they hunt, fish and gather belongs instead to the group. They have no tribal chiefs, no tyranny; the true authority is that of the father of the family; there is already a form of State, but still a very weak one, so much so that in the case of homicide, if the families do not reach an agreement, blood vengeance falls to the relatives of the slain and not to the State.

PRIMITIVI - Initiates with painted faces - Yamana.(from M. Gusinde, Die Yamana, Mödling near Vienna 1937, p. 161)

According to the historical-cultural school, the Negritos, the Bushmen and the inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego may still be included in this culture, although they already have a more complex social organization, inasmuch as the young men and girls, before becoming part of society, must undergo an initiation, which has a pedagogical and moral character, during which the initiates are taught the precepts they must observe (v. INIZIAZIONE DELLA GIOVENTU). The Tasmanians, now extinct, the Indians of central California, the most primitive populations of Australia, the Eskimos of the arctic regions represent a still further development because, although living by gathering, hunting and fishing, they begin to use stone as a tool as well, and indeed the populations of Australia and Tasmania work it. The beginning of the spear also belongs to this period; this weapon is at first very simple; in the most primitive cultures of Australia the bâmerang is used, a throwing weapon, and the shield, of a very rough shape, called a club-shield because, more than a true shield, it is a simple stick that serves to parry the blows of the club. The first manifestations of tattooing done with scars begin; the huts have the shape of a round beehive. Polygamy also begins.

III. PRIMARY CULTURES

From the original cultures more complex cultures are formed, known by the name of primary cultures. This development takes place in two very different forms which differ above all in their sociological aspect: if the woman has the most important part in society, matriarchy arises; if she passes into second place in relation to the man, patriarchy arises. The first form is characteristic of populations passing from the primitive state to agriculture; the second develops among peoples whose economy is founded on hunting and livestock.

One of the oldest manifestations of matriarchy is, in its sociological aspect, the system of two marriage classes between which exogamy prevails. The woman begins to work the land with a pickaxe, the house is at right angles, the club, in its most diverse forms, is the characteristic weapon of this culture, the shield assumes larger dimensions. Pottery with a rim is made by the women, and the first baskets are woven in the same way. The fabrics are of tree bark, the boats of planks, the drums of split wood. Other characteristics of this culture are the multi-reed flute and the musical bow. Besides the division of the tribe into two exogamous marriage classes, other characteristics of this culture include descent traced in the matriarchal line and, perhaps, also cannibalism. In religion there develop lunar mythology, the cult of skulls and of the dead, dances during which masks are worn, and two-stage burial. Also from the original cultures two other cultures develop, in which patriarchy predominates.

PRIMITIVI - Stone fetishes depicting the divinity of the hunt: Kaliwe the Little Hunter - Franciscan mission of Lulus-Katanga, Belgian Congo.

In totemism the essential sociological characteristic is that the tribe derives from an animal (this is the most common case) or from a plant, sometimes even from a body (moon, water) which therefore becomes tabu. In the totemist tribe hunting is much more developed than in the original cultures; great hunts are organized in which the whole tribe takes part, and the weapons are much more perfected. They are above all pointed (spears, swords, daggers). The spear is thrown with a spear-thrower, the house is round with a chimney-shaped roof. The garment consists of a broad, hard belt and a sheath around the penis. Totemists color their whole body, or at least some parts, red and wear many ornaments, especially necklaces, earrings and round discs. The axe is characterized by the fact that the blade is inserted directly into the thickest end of a branch. Totemists work wood a great deal, making oval plates and headrests, on which they carve figures, especially of animals. The ornamentation is rectilinear, arranged in bands; the canoe is built by hollowing out a tree trunk, and the oars are lancet-shaped. As a musical instrument, the simple flute should be mentioned. The sociology of totemist populations is characterized by the social bond with the totem and by initiation in the tribes, reserved only for the young and accompanied by painful practices. Descent is regulated only in the patriarchal line; members of the same clan, who therefore have the same totem, cannot marry. Religion is above all solar mythology with a strong development of magic. It seems that the dead are not buried but exposed to the sun; with totemism mummification perhaps begins.

Also in the culture of pastoral nomads the house originally has a round shape. Stone is little used, and objects are above all of wood and bone. The economy is founded on livestock breeding; milk and blood constitute the essential nourishment of these populations. The containers, and originally also the boats, are mostly of leather; the bow is reflex and is also called, from its origin, the Asiatic bow; the spear with a bone point and provided with hooks is also used. Large families are formed in which the authority of the head is increasingly strengthened. The monotheism of the original cultures remains relatively pure.

IV. SECONDARY CULTURES

To a third group, resulting from the mixture of primary cultures, belong the secondary cultures.

The economy, sociology and religion develop and are transformed.

PRIMITIVI - Forms of burial and funeral rites. The corpse is laid in the ground surrounded by a ring of stones and covered with a skin. Caribou Eskimos - Hudson Bay.(from Report of the fifth Thule Expedition, 1911-21, V, Copenhagen 1929, p. 391, fig. III)

In the matriarchate, through contact with other cultures, large families arise, but descent remains in the matriarchal line. The house is still rectangular but takes on larger dimensions in order to gather the whole lineage; it is often supported on poles (pile dwellings). The weapons of this culture are the bow with a flat transverse section and the shield, which is hung from the shoulder; small bows and small arrows are also used to draw blood from animals. The use of tobacco and betel begins. The canoe, still built with planks, is perfected; oars resembling crutches are used; to pass from one place to another of the pile dwellings, suspension bridges are built. Characteristic of this culture are small wooden drums shaped like an hourglass, and combs; colored substances are used in tattooing. Regular gynecocracies are formed. At their first menstruation girls are initiated by their mother. Magic and fetishism develop more and more; ancestors and spirits are represented in a crouching position.

Patriarchal cultures seem more inclined to specialization and, at least in the manifestations of their material culture, are often different. The Austronesian or Malay-Polynesian cultural cycle and the Sudanese one are especially noteworthy. They have in common the formation of social classes, the tendency toward absolute monarchy and toward polytheism. Material culture, on the other hand, is very different, since the Malay-Polynesians live on islands and are therefore navigators, whereas the Sudanese live in the interior of a continent.

Nomadic pastoralists have a tendency to superimpose themselves on other peoples and dominate them.

V. TERTIARY CULTURES

The foundation of the great civilizations that developed in the various parts of the world, they are due to mixtures of primary and secondary cultures and differ from these in that they developed writing and literature. Three great cultural complexes can be distinguished: the Asiatic, the American and the European. The first comprises the Chinese, Japanese and Indian cultural cycle, the second the cultures of Central America (Nahua and Maya) and South America (Cauca, Chibcha, Juha, Aymara). The third stands at the beginning of our civilization and extends even into historical times.

VI. THE DIFFUSION OF CULTURES IN THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE WORLD

1. Arctic regions

The Arctic cultural cycle is diffused in America (Greenland) and in northern Asia. It was originally an original culture to which many extraneous elements have been mixed. The environment requires a wide use of bone in the manufacture of weapons and tools (v. ETNOLOGIA).

2. America

Only in California are there still original cultures, while the whole of North America is the result of a mixture of matriarchy and totemism that is strong especially in the northwest. In the south the influence of the Mexican culture that developed in Central America begins to make itself felt, while in the neighboring islands the later matriarchy made itself strongly felt. In the southernmost part of South America it is the inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego who still belong to an original culture. Proceeding northward, there follow cultures of the earlier matriarchy and of totemism, and, in the northeast, of the later matriarchy. To the north and northwest extend the great cultures of Peru and Colombia.

3. Melanesia

In Melanesia there is a great mixture of cultures. The greater part of northern Melanesia is occupied by populations with the later matriarchy. In the south there are totemist cultures, among which earlier matriarchal cultures have wedged themselves.

4. Polynesia, Micronesia and Indonesia

These islands form in a certain sense a unified cultural complex, which is called Austronesian and is the result of the fusion of patriarchal and matriarchal cultures.

5. Australia and Tasmania

In southeastern Australia there are original cultures or at least cultures very close to them; in the eastern part a culture of the earlier matriarchy and in the north totemism. The Tasmanians have disappeared for several decades; it seems that their culture was very close to the original cultures.

6. Africa

In Africa there are several groups of populations that have preserved many archaic elements; the Pygmies on the edges of the forests of central Africa, who are the most genuine representatives of the original culture; in the south (Kalahari region) the Bushmen, who already represent a more evolved phase. The populations situated along the Nile (Nilotic peoples) and still others have preserved archaic cultural elements. Matriarchy has a preponderant part in the Congo and in West Africa. In the northeast there are nomadic pastoralists (Somali, Galla and other tribes) while in the north there are features of matriarchy. In the Sudan and in Abyssinia great cultures have developed.

7. Asia

As in all the other parts of the world, in the south there are original cultures (the Semang of Malacca and the inhabitants of the Andaman Islands). In Further and Hither India and in southern China there are matriarchal populations; in the center and in the west, pastoralist cultures. The rest of the great continent, except for the Arctic populations already mentioned, is occupied by peoples who have developed great cultures (India, China, Japan).

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: reference is made to the copious bibliography of ESOCAMIA; ETNOLOGIA; FAMIGLIA, II. In ethnology, and in particular to the works recalled in the sub-paragraphs "Autori storico-culturali" and "Monografie, manuali, trattati, enciclopedie". Cf. also: G. Schmidt, Critères pour établir la position ethnologique des cercles culturels les plus anciens, in Settimana internazionale di etnologia religiosa (IV Sess., Milano 1925), Paris 1926, p. 126 ff. and the good appendix: Les cercles culturels (with maps) in the same Settimana, p. 341 ff. For a more detailed illustration of the cultural elements that relate predominantly to economy and art see: R. Boccassino, Il Regio Museo preistorico-etnografico « Luigi Pigorini » di Roma (with 162 illustrations), in collaboration with P. Barocelli and M. Carelli, Rome 1937. The diffusion of ethnological and prehistoric cultures is traced in the Atlas that accompanies the work of Fr. W. Schmidt, Die Sprachfamilien und Sprachenkreise der Erde, Heidelberg 1926 (map VIII, Die ethnologischen Kulturkreise). As a historical-cultural map it is still the best although in various points it should be revised and updated. The geographical distribution of the tribes is indicated in the ethnographic maps of Africa, America and Asia under the corresponding entries of the Ene. Ital. (I and II). The maps were drawn by R. Biasutti. For Australia see the map reproduced by R. Pettazzoni, Miti e leggende, Turin

1948, p. 405. See also the entries and ethnographic maps of the Esc. Ital.