From Anthropological Category to Ideological Apparatus: The Concept of “Primitive Society
13th International New York Academic Research Congress on Social, Humanities, Administrative, and Educational Sciences, New York, Amerika Birleşik Devletleri, 10 - 12 Temmuz 2025, ss.1224-1225, (Özet Bildiri)
- Yayın Türü: Bildiri / Özet Bildiri
- Doi Numarası: 10.30546/19023.978-9952
- Basıldığı Şehir: New York
- Basıldığı Ülke: Amerika Birleşik Devletleri
- Sayfa Sayıları: ss.1224-1225
- Süleyman Demirel Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
This study explores how the concept of the “primitive society” has been positioned as a foundational
counterpoint in the processes of modernity, progress, and nation-building. Originally derived from
anthropological observation, the concept has gradually evolved into a political and ideological
apparatus. The “primitive” is defined through characteristics such as irrationality, lack of culture,
subjection to nature, corporeality, and ritualism—serving to delineate the boundaries of modern
society and to facilitate the construction of its identity. Through this function, the concept of the
“primitive society” emerges as a floating signifier: fluid, context-dependent, and inherently unstable.
This multiplicity of meanings and contextual flexibility necessitates a close examination of its modes
of representation. Accordingly, the study investigates how the imagination of the primitive is
constructed through morphological, cultural, mythical, and gendered representations.
The concept of “primitive society” functions both as a representation of the past and of non-Western
geographies, and as a strategic narrative used to suppress the internal fragilities of modern society. Its
representation circulates repeatedly across different historical contexts, legitimizing the rationality of
the modern individual, the homogeneity of national identity, and the progressive vision of the state.
Within this framework, the paper analyzes the ideological weight of the “primitive society” figure in
both anthropological discourse and modernization texts and examines how the concept is positioned
within dichotomies such as East–West, tradition–modernity, and femininity–masculinity. Supported
by historical examples from Turkey, this analysis centers not on what the “primitive society” is, but on
how it is mobilized as an ideological and discursive tool.