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The idea that the future of humanity lies in the past and that the solution to contemporary problems can be found in wisdom from the depths of time is not new. Every era has recognised the temptations of primitivism. Yet current ideological uncertainties give it renewed strength. The re-emergence of “mystic tourism”, which - through ritualised use of hallucinogenic substances - strives to find the keys of a lost paradise, is only one aspect of the appeal of our origins. For primitivism currently takes three forms: political, anthropological and artistic. In this book, Jean-Loup Amselle casts a gruellingly critical eye over each of them.

From the concept of the Quai Branly Museum to Nicolas Sarkozy’s references to “negritude” in his Dakar speech, via the way in which ethnic identity and values are being promoted in West Africa and South America, he demonstrates how states and statesmen use authenticity and tradition as justification and instruments of power. He also denounces the immutable concept that some of his anthropologist colleagues have of exotic cultures, one that amounts to a fetishism of indigenous cultures; as if “savages” had to be driven out of history in order to have a better understanding of Western thought. Lastly, he analyses the “process of cultural purification in other societies” through artistic creations whose formulaic exoticism is honed to seduce an international audience.

This finely argued, committed and sometimes ironic work also takes a strong stand against contemporary uses of primitivist myths.

Jean-Loup Amselle is an anthropologist and the Director of Studies at the School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences. His most celebrated work is L’Occident décroché. Enquête sur les postcolonialismes (Stock, 2008).