Economic development  

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-:''[[Primitivism]], [[Primitive Culture]]'' 
-In older [[anthropology]] texts and discussions, a '''primitive culture''' is one that lacks major signs of [[economic development]] or [[modernity]]. For instance, it might lack a written language or advanced technology and have a limited and isolated population. The term was used by [[Western world|Western]] writers to describe foreign cultures contacted by European colonists and explorers. ''[[Primitive Culture]]'' is also the title of a major work by [[Edward Tylor]], "the founder of anthropology", in which he defines religion as "[[animism]]" which, in turn, he defines by reference to contemporary indigenous and other religious data as "the belief in spirits". Another defining characteristic of primitive cultures is a greater amount of [[leisure]] time than in more complex societies.  
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-Many early sociologists and other writers portrayed primitive cultures as noble—[[noble savage]]s—and believed that their lack of technology and less integrated economies made them ideal examples of the correct human lifestyle. Among these thinkers were [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]], who is most frequently associated with the idea of the noble savage based on his ''[[Discourse on Inequality]]'', and [[Karl Polanyi]], who in ''[[The Great Transformation]]'' praised the economic organization of primitive societies as less destructive than the [[market economy]]. The belief that primitive cultures are ideal is often described as [[primitivism]]; branches of this theory include [[primitive communism]] and [[anarcho-primitivism]]. 
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-Many of these writers assumed that contemporary indigenous peoples or their cultures were comparable to the earliest humans or their cultures. Some people still make this assumption. The word "primitive" comes from the Latin "primus" meaning "first", and it was believed by [[Victorian Era|Victorian]] anthropologists that the so-called primitive contemporary cultures preserved a state unchanged since "[[stone age]]" [[paleolithic]] or [[neolithic]] times. This assumption has proved to be false as [[hunter-gatherer]] bands have just as much accumulated innovation as do "modern" [[civilisation|civilised]] cultures. The differences are because most of the cultural innovation in [[hunter-gatherer]] or [[shifting cultivation|shifting horticultural]] cultures is in areas of ceremonial, arts, beliefs, ritual and tradition which usually do not leave cultural artefacts, tools or weapons. The assumption too that hunter-gatherer bands and shifting horticultural [[tribes]] have more in common than they have with more complex [[Urban area|urban]] or [[civilisation|civilised]] societies is also denied by many modern archaeologists. Close examination of differences in culture show that these types of cultures are as different as they are from modern urban and civilised cultures. 
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-Though belief in the "noble savage" has not disappeared, describing a culture as primitive is often considered factually incorrect and offensive today. Use of the term, especially in academic settings, has thus diminished. 
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-==See also== 
-*[[Ethnology]] 
-*[[Pierre Clastres]] 
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-==Further reading== 
-*[[Stanley Diamond (anthropologist)|Stanley Diamond]], ''In Search of the Primitive'', Transaction Publishers,U.S. 1987, ISBN 087855582X 
-*[[Adam Kuper]], ''The Reinvention of Primitive Society. Transformations of a Myth'' , Taylor & Francis Ltd. 2005, ISBN 0415357616 
-*[[Joseph Campbell]], ''[[The Masks of God]]: Primitive Mythology'', Viking, 1959; reissued by Penguin, 1991 ISBN: 978-0140194432 
-*Joseph Campbell, ''[[The Historical Atlas of World Mythology]]'', vols. I and II, Harper and Row 1988, 1989. 
 +'''Economic development''' is the increase in the [[standard of living]] of a nation's population with sustained growth from a simple, low-income [[economy]] to a modern, high-income economy.
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Economic development is the increase in the standard of living of a nation's population with sustained growth from a simple, low-income economy to a modern, high-income economy.



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