primitivists
Anti-civilization movement followers
Primitivists advocate returning to simpler, pre-industrial ways of living, believing that civilization—especially technology and agriculture—has corrupted human nature and caused social and environmental harm.
The term covers a range of positions, from those who romanticize hunter-gatherer societies to anarcho-primitivists who see the dismantling of modern systems as necessary for human flourishing.
In art, primitivists drew inspiration from non-Western and folk traditions, rejecting academic conventions.
Untrained, childlike creative work
- outsider artUntrained makers' visual work
- folk artTraditional community-made creativity
- GauguinFrench artist abroad
- cave paintingPrehistoric art on stone
tribal art · raw · unschooled · Picasso · African masks · instinctive · untrained · non-Western
One opposing technological progress
- technophobiaDread of modern devices
- back-to-the-landMovement toward rural self-sufficiency
- deindustrializationLoss of industrial capacity
- anti-capitalismOpposition to market economies
anti-consumerism · deglobalization · rejectionism · counter-culture · unplugged · off-grid · Ted Kaczynski · rewilding
Period of peak prosperity
- utopiaImagined perfect society
- idyllicPerfectly peaceful and charming
- unspoiledNot damaged or degraded
- noble savageIdealized primitive innocence
Rousseau · paradise · innocence · Eden · uncorrupted · halcyon · ancestral wisdom · origins
Pre-farming subsistence lifestyle
- foragingSeeking wild food sources
- tribalOf a clan
- indigenousOriginating in a region
- shamanismMediation between worlds
animism · totemism · paleolithic · neolithic · nomadic · subsistence · ethnobotany · prehistory
naive art
Untrained, childlike creative work
- outsider artUntrained makers' visual work
- folk artTraditional community-made creativity
- GauguinFrench artist abroad
cave painting · tribal art · raw · unschooled · Picasso · African masks · instinctive · untrained · non-Western · ethnographic
Luddite
One opposing technological progress
- technophobiaDread of modern devices
- back-to-the-landMovement toward rural self-sufficiency
- deindustrializationLoss of industrial capacity
anti-capitalism · anti-consumerism · deglobalization · rejectionism · counter-culture · unplugged · off-grid · Ted Kaczynski · rewilding · anti-industrialism
golden age
Period of peak prosperity
- utopiaImagined perfect society
- idyllicPerfectly peaceful and charming
- unspoiledNot damaged or degraded
noble savage · Rousseau · paradise · innocence · Eden · uncorrupted · halcyon · ancestral wisdom · origins · authenticity
hunter-gatherer
Pre-farming subsistence lifestyle
- foragingSeeking wild food sources
- tribalOf a clan
- indigenousOriginating in a region
shamanism · animism · totemism · paleolithic · neolithic · nomadic · subsistence · ethnobotany · prehistory · kinship
minimalism
Aesthetic of reduction
- austerityEnforced economic stringency
- self-sufficiencyIndependence from outside aid
- homesteadingSelf-reliant land-based lifestyle
spartan · elemental · unadorned · basic · monastic · frugality · handmade · low-tech · craft · artisanal
- eco-activistseco-warriors, eco-warrior, eco warriors, climate activists, tree hugger
- AnarchistsGoldman, Emma Goldman, mutualists, collectivists, individualists
- Fringe Groupsmilitias, extremists, radicals, separatists, dissidents
primitiviststranshumanists
Proponents of technologically enhanced humanity
futurists · progressives · modernists · technophiles · progressivists