Literary notes about Primitive (AI summary)
Literary authors have employed "primitive" in diverse yet intersecting ways. For some, the term carries a notion of an early, unadorned state—whether depicting the austere virtues of early Christian or Roman life [1, 2] or signaling the rudimentary, almost elemental forms found in early human society and nature [3, 4]. In philosophic and sociological texts, the word underscores original ideas and structures, from basic economic models [5] and early religious practices [6, 7] to the raw, instinctive characteristics of thought and emotion [8, 9]. Meanwhile, narrative writers have used "primitive" more nostalgically and descriptively to convey simplicity, ruggedness, or a return to nature [10, 11, 12]. Thus, its literary usage ranges from identifying original, foundational states to evoking a sense of natural, unspoiled energy.
- The virtue of the primitive Christians, like that of the first Romans, was very frequently guarded by poverty and ignorance.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - The African Christians soon formed one of the principal members of the primitive church.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - The predominant tree in the primitive forest here was the pine, which attained a gigantic size; but specimens of the black oak were intermingled.
— from Toronto of Old by Henry Scadding - In the amphioxus this primitive mouth is a little eccentric, or shifted to the dorsal side (Fig. 39).
— from Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll - 5 We can now compare our results with the fallacious views on Primitive Economic Man, sketched out at the beginning of this Division.
— from Argonauts of the Western Pacific by Bronislaw Malinowski - This predicative meaning, however, being the most original meaning of the word, allows us an insight into the most primitive ideas of a nation.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - PRIMITIVE ARCHITECTURE is therefore a subject for the archæologist rather than the historian of art, and needs here only the briefest mention.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - Primitive consciousness may be spiritual.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana - In the internal economy of the primitive man's soul, the fear of evil preponderates.
— from The Will to Power: An Attempted Transvaluation of All Values. Book III and IV by Nietzsche - It was one of those primitive taverns where the traveller pays only for food and lodging, but meets with a homely kindness beyond all price.
— from Twice-told tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne - There had always been something primitive and cosy in his attitude towards life; he loved the family hearth, he loved gossip, and he loved grumbling.
— from The Forsyte Saga, Volume I. by John Galsworthy - The gaunt ground, the skyey roof, the caves offering primitive shelter-all seemed a gracious natural setting for the seraphic saints around me.
— from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda
