In “Beyond Civilised & Primitive,” Ran Prieur explores a dichotomy that has long been part of the debates raised by the environmentalist movement since its inception; a set of standardised images relative to our concepts of mankind and society, which tends to give rise to many a pipe dream on either side.
According to “primitivism,” in order to escape from the many ills of modern-day society, mankind should return to the Golden Age of pre-civilisation — as exemplified by the so-called “primitive” nations we know today, or following our fantasies concerning the lives of prehistorical humans: