Can a society or culture be deemed "primitive", if so by what criteria?

Question

Can a society or culture be deemed "primitive", if so by what criteria?

Answer 1

Yes ! Well! I think I agree with John Doe on this one.

Answer 2

I do not believe present societies and cultures can.  All cultures have had similar amounts of time to be working at perfecting their way of life according to their environment, values, world view, etc.  Some societies have chosen to accept capitalism and the supermarket, factory farms, and in-and-out biomedicine.  Others herd goats and weave in the desert.  It is not that if the goat herders knew of capitalism that they would adopt it and thereby become not 'primitive'.  The goat herders may well be capitalists, selling carpets for example.  In another century, population collapse, scarcity of oil for fuel, or a similar change may make 'modern' societies 'devolve' into village societies with localized self-sufficiency.  Change is not unidirectional but to call a society primitive is to locate it in our past, as not yet to the level the West is on.  There are better ways to classify contemporary societies different from our own than to use 'primitive'.

Answer 3

yes if they seem to have a rather unusual and barbaric make-up such as eating raw meat without a fork, cooking using fires, clothing made of animal hides.

The stereotype of neanderthal or cave man, i would consider to be primitive.

Answer 4

The word primitive is viable when you're using a social evolutionary paradigm.  "Primitive" denotes being the first along a trajectory of human development that puts Western society as the pinnacle of human achievement.  Accordingly, the socio-cultural evolutionary paradigm defines social development according to technological progress.  People lacking Western technology are considered more closer to the first human groups, whereas people with Western technology are considered more developed and distant from their progenitors.  

However, the word primitive is commonly frowned upon due to the fact that social evolutionary paradigms promote racism and undue notions of superiority.  The social evolutionary paradigms have been implicated with the usage of the notions of superiority to justify appropriation of resources and the oppression of many.  Accordingly, the word "primitive" carries negative connotations and most academics try to avoid using the word.

Answer 5

by its way of life

Answer 6

Well, yes, but that is only a relative question.

Like, some eastern European countries are now more primitive (they are not primitive, but only more primitive) than say US. But, 200 years ago, some of them were actually more advanced. They were monarchies etc.

Answer 7

The ways and means by which they survive.  Do they grocery shop or are they hunter/gatherers.  Do they utilize modern technology?