Last week in the Rose Cafe, GRF Sam Legasse came in to talk about a concept that I was not very familiar with: the modern primitive. Sam is a Ph.D. student in the English department. As a Biology and Society major on the pre-med track, my field of study is quite interdisciplinary. Yet, I do not have much experience with the humanities. As a result, the unique perspectives that were discussed during the evening were very interesting, many of which I had not thought of myself.

Sam did a very good job of incorporating different media platforms into his presentation of what the modern and the primitive exactly are, on their own. Then, we attempted to piece together what exactly the modern primitive means. We came to the consensus that many of the ideas of the modern primitive stem from the concept of colonialism. I found that Josephine Baker’s The Banana Dance and The Tiller Girls exemplified modern primitivism very well. They showed the stark contrast yet juxtaposition of the modern and the primitive.

An interesting application of the modern primitive being applied in our society today is the paleo diet. This diet represents an attempt to go back to ancient times when people were supposedly “healthier.” Overall, I think it is important to understand how our experiences influence how we interpret the definition of the modern primitive in different contexts. It is easy for us to look down upon ideas rooted in the past, but what becomes clear is that our views are consciously or subconsciously influenced by our environment, and our environment has been shaped by historical events. Therefore, we must learn to appreciate the past and how it influences our conceptions of the present and future.