"Anarcho-primitivism opposes civilization, the context within which the various forms of oppression proliferate and become pervasive-and, indeed, possible. The aim is to develop a synthesis.of the ecologically focused, non-statist, anti-authoritarian aspects of primitive lifeways with the most advanced forms of anarchist analysis of power relations. The aim is not to replicate or return to the primitive, [but] merely to see the primitive as a source of inspiration, as exemplifying forms of anarchy."
-John Moore, A Primitivist Primer

Presenting a vision of a world unencumbered by hierarchical politics and technological domination over human and non-human life, anarcho-primitivism has much to contribute to antiauthoritarian discourse. The analytical value of anarcho-primitivism is that hardly any aspect of human culture escapes critical examination; from the very foundations of agriculture and mass production, to the interrelationship between these phenomena and institutionalized forms of hierarchy and domination, very little is taken for granted. Where anarchists have traditionally critiqued the manifestations of hierarchical thinking and authoritarian social relations, anarcho-primitivists attack the assumptions behind that thinking.

Anarcho-primitivists are quick to point to the 99% of human existence before the advent of agriculture, the period of the primacy of gathering-hunting economic and social arrangements. This primal human life-way, characterized by the absence of institutionalized forms of power, shows that something radically different from the current regime of transnational industrial capitalism and politics-an anarchic arrangement in fact-is not only possible, but has had an enduring and successful track record. Further, the existence and durability of these anarchic cultures shows that the development of a hierarchical and predatory economic and political system is neither necessary nor inevitable.

Communism, syndicalism, individualism, and feminism all have anarchists who adhere to them to one degree or another. But without the anarcho- in front, these ideologies are merely variations on the themes of statism and authoritarianism. Primitivism is no different. The critique and rejection of industrial capitalism and technologically dominated civilization is not the monopoly of antiauthoritarian thinkers and activists. Some who are attracted to primitivism are partisans of misanthropy and other forms of domination. Anarchists who are interested in extending the relevance of primitivist ideas need to distance themselves from these dead ends.
Authoritarian primitivism

Authoritarian primitivists disregard the example of gatherer-hunters; they see this form of culture as irrelevant. They are more interested in non-technologized euro-american cultural survival. (Many Deep Ecologists and the first generation of Earth First! prior to the hippie/redneck split belong in this category.) The sedentary village societies of Celtic, Teutonic and/or Norse cultivators and hunters are seen as relevant models. That they had warrior castes and raiding as an integral part of their cultures seems to be of no concern to authoritarian primitivists; indeed, many consider this heroic. Such a predatory system led directly to the establishment of the European feudal order; it seems that authoritarian primitivists wish to revitalize this decentralized social and economic arrangement with themselves as the heads of their own fiefdoms. They are not interested in the abolition of the division of labor or of the state; their model requires the adherence to the philosophy of might makes right.

This tendency is marked by a mythical understanding of land; bioregionalism (the idea that only indigenous flora and fauna belong in their native ecosystems) is made to apply to humans as well. Bioregionalist primitivists promote the so-called natural or organic belonging of a particular people/nation/ethnicity to a particular geographical area. The xenophobic populism and racist nationalism implicit in such a perspective is not difficult to spot. It is also easy to see the similarities between authoritarian primitivism and the volksgemeinschaft and blut und boden aspects of nazi ideology. This is not to say that all primitivists are crypto-fascists, but there are many characteristics of authoritarian primitivism that overlap with parts of National Socialism.

Authoritarian primitivism is also characterized by the promotion of the idea that there are too many people in the world relative to too few resources. Such a perspective is supposed to be based on scientific analyses. The elevation of Science (not empiricism, but the belief that Science is some kind of neutral and objective endeavor, a pure method of arriving at Truth) to an ideology leaves larger questions unexamined. Political and ideological assumptions inform all science, and no knowledge is separable form the use to which it is put. The field of biology is no exception. Biologism, a belief in the accuracy of euro-american biological science, plays a major part in the uglier manifestations of authoritarian and vulgar primitivism. If the assumption is that the multitude of traditionally dispossessed people are a threat to the few who possess much, then any scientist-especially biological determinists-will provide the rationale for maintaining that dispossession.

The mantra of "too many mouths to feed" is as old as it is false. Biological research has nothing to do with the deliberate destruction of tons of grains in order to maintain maximum profits, the waste of water and plant foods to maintain the meat industry, or government subsidies for the dairy industry; these are political and economic policies. But it does have everything to do with the field of genetic modification of seed crops, which is supposed to feed the multitudes, but is used merely to maximize profits for the patent-holders of whatever frankenfoods result. Clearly biology is not some neutral way of examining life. Even so, authoritarian primitivists latch on to the most reactionary pronouncements of neo-Malthusian biologists as if it were the only game in town. We are treated to such memorable terms as "carrying capacity" with no examination of what it is that's being "carried." It isn't the human and non-human populations of a given ecosystem; it is of course the current organization of industrial capitalism and the profits of the beneficiaries of it.
Vulgar primitivism

Vulgar primitivism may be characterized primarily by a romantic idealization of primal cultures. From this type of primitivist we can hear uncritical celebrations of gatherer-hunters as egalitarian and peaceful people who live without any division of labor, in total harmony with themselves, each other, and their environments. In these cultures there is no state to be sure, and the locations of power are rarely institutionalized and almost always distributed horizontally. There are other types of cultures that share these same characteristics. Pastoralists possess domesticated animals and engage in small-scale and subsistence agriculture, and they have no institutionalized power structures either; this type of culture is certainly worthy of study for the same reasons gatherer-hunters are. But vulgar primitivists have little interest in pastoralists and small-scale agriculturalists. This is a selective (some might say manipulative) use of the anthropological literature.

The accusation of primitivists wanting to go "back to the Stone Age" is most applicable to vulgar primitivists. Some primitivists proudly proclaim that they really do want to live that way, if we can believe many of the articles in the mainstream press concerning contemporary anarchists. The most serious primitivist theorists I know, and whose essays I've read, advocate a simpler non-industrialized life, with much lower impact on the environment; they are interested in permaculture, composting toilets, wild foods, self sufficiency and generally living "off the grid." The technological level of such a culture would most closely resemble rural life in the pre-Industrial Revolution era, combined with a "back to the land" ethos of late 20th century America. Tools and production methods up to and including the 16th through the early 19th centuries might be totally appropriate for that kind of life. This model also fits in well with the idea of local, small-scale autonomous communities that network or federate with each other-a usual (but not the only) anarchist model.

Vulgar primitivists also latch onto biologism. This can be seen in some primitivist discourse concerning overpopulation. The anti-primitivist accusation of promotion of a "mass die-off" comes into play here, and the more vulgar primitivists are reluctant to respond to it, apparently because they don't think a "mass die-off" of humans would be such a bad thing. The misanthropy inherent in this perspective is self-defeating for antiauthoritarians. Misanthropy very easily lends itself to authoritarian ideas and practices; if people in general are inherently stupid and destructive, doesn't it make sense to have some kind of enlightened leadership to oversee us, so that we don't hurt our environments or ourselves? This is one of the most basic authoritarian lies. In addition, there is a clear contradiction to this generalized misanthropy from within primitivism: how can vulgar primitivists justify the idea of an implacable human drive for destruction if humans existed so well for hundreds and thousands of years-without destroying their environments and each other?

The people who should be held directly accountable for the rampant destruction of the natural world are the scientists who (re-)engineer its genetic structure, the capitalists who profit from its exploitation, and the ideologists who justify all of it. This is a small part of humanity (both historically and contemporarily); even though a majority of people in the North benefits from the continuation of this regime of destruction, responsibility should be placed where it belongs-with those who create and maintain that regime. Primitivists discredit themselves when they blame "humanity" (as if we were some kind of plague). This diverts attention away from the real culprits.

Vulgar primitivists have taken the accusations hurled at primitivism by anti-primitivists as badges of honor. So they promote the reactionary ideas that there are too many mouths to feed, and that a critique of industrial technology necessarily means returning to a Paleolithic existence. They are knee-jerk anti-anti-primitivists with nearly no capacity for independent critical thinking, nor do they seem capable of threading their way through a coherent discussion about what it actually means to reject technological society.
Anarchist primitivism

A self-conscious anarcho-primitivism needs to begin with a critical examination of the gatherer-hunter cultures that are discussed in various ethnographies. Anarcho-primitivists need to show that this type of culture is a valuable theoretical and philosophical guide for living without industrial technology, capitalism, and the state.

There are several questions that need to be answered when relying so heavily on anthropological literature, however. How much of the ethnography is based on the (possibly idealized) interpretations of the anthropologist doing the fieldwork? How much is the supposed egalitarianism of the actual culture recognizable to us as antiauthoritarians? Is the supposed lack of violence recognizable to us? Are the sexual division of labor and the separate spheres of activity based on gender, age, and ability recognizable to us as positive examples of a stateless, non-hierarchical culture?

What if gatherer-hunter cultures do not provide us with fully positive models of anarchic cultures-those that an average anarchist would recognize as a good place to live? Does it undercut the primitivist critique if there is little or no reliance on ethnographies of gatherer-hunters? Probably not; no serious anarcho-primitivist promotes an uncritical emulation or adoption of foraging, pastoralist, and small-scale agriculturalist culture. What is needed is a critical examination of such cultures and the various ways the people in them have managed to exclude and prevent the formation of institutionalized structures of domination and exploitation. Combined with an equally critical anarchist analysis of the banal system of technologized industrial capitalism in the North and the regime of brutal accumulation and extraction of wealth from the South, anarcho-primitivism could become the most coherent analytical framework for understanding and combating the current trend of "globalization."
For an anti-ideological anarcho-primitivism

Many primitivists adhere to ideas that are pulled from one or more of the three tendencies I've identified for the purposes of this essay. It is of crucial importance for anarcho-primitivists to promote self-examination and a critique of the untenable positions that various primitivists take. When primitivists talk about a visceral or spiritual connection to the land and the plants and animals living there, anarcho-primitivists need to caution them about the relationship of this kind of mysticism to authoritarian ideologies. When primitivists talk about overpopulation and "carrying capacity," anarcho-primitivists need to point out the reactionary nature of Malthusianism.

Similarly, when anti-primitivists accuse primitivists of being in favor of a racist "mass die-off," anarcho-primitivists need to remind them that it is the people in the un- or partially-industrialized South (whom anti-primitivists patronizingly want to protect) who will survive any temporary-or permanent-collapse of industrialized capitalism. They possess the best resources to survive any such disintegration. In fact, it is those fully integrated into and dependent on transnational euro-american capitalism who would suffer most when the store shelves are empty and the electricity stops.

An anarchist primitivism worthy of support would reject scientism, biologism, and the selective and uncritical embrace of anthropological research into gatherer-hunter cultures. It would also reject the reactionary misanthropy of blaming all humans for the domination and exploitation carried out by the rich and powerful. Further, it would reject the instinctive humanism of liberalism and socialism in favor of a balance between the actual needs of humans and the preservation and integrity of the natural world.

Taken from issue 52 of Anarchy AJDA

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