Adventures in the archaic primitivism, degrowth, and the French social sciences, 1945-1975 Ryan L. Allen

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Allen, Ryan L., Author.

Series:

Life of ideas

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Primitivism.

Social sciences--France.

Social sciences.

Anthropology--France.

Anthropology.

France.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Chicago The University of Chicago Press 2026

Summary:

"We tend to associate "primitivism" with the nostalgic idealization of origins, often aimed at parts of the world that are (problematically) viewed as "closer" to that idealized past than modern post-industrial society. "Primitivist" impulses still exist in popular culture, whether in "paleo" diets or returns to foraging, and they can also be seen in intellectual and political circles in debates around the possibility of "degrowth." In this book, historian Ryan Allen examines primitivism anew through four fascinating figures: Georges Bataille, Henri Lefebvre, Mircea Eliade, and Georges Devereux. In the postwar period, Allen shows, the French social sciences were obsessed with the primitive and archaic from anthropological, philosophical, psychiatric, or religious angles. These thinkers, in different ways, sought past alternatives to midcentury hyper-modernization and capitalist excess. They put forth trenchant critiques of contemporary society, and as Allen argues, they sought in the archaic past a way to imagine a more sustainable future. Allen seeks to rehabilitate these thinkers, showing how their critique of growth and consumerism was nourished by an engagement with primitive cultures as potential sources of cultural and ecological wisdom. As we face planetary disaster, Allen suggests, there is still something to learn from these iconoclastic approaches"-- Provided by publisher

Contents:

Introduction: The Promise of a Certain Primitivism

Archaic Religion in a New Key: Georges Bataille at Lascaux

The Work of Nostalgia: Henri Lefebvre's New Theory of Survivals

Georges Devereux: Mohave Shamanism and the Future of Ethnopsychiatry

Mircea Eliade and Neopaganism as Postcolonial Critique

Epilogue: Primitivism in Our Time

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index

Print version record

Other Format:

Print version Allen, Ryan L. Adventures in the archaic

ISBN:

9780226846354

0226846350

OCLC:

1564059948

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license