Primitivni mentalitet
This work is a psychological-sociological treatise, which studies that level of human consciousness, which, according to Lévy-Bruhl, precedes the consciousness of today's European.
It is the humorous world of primitives, who live on non-European continents and on the islands of the Pacific Ocean. Their way of thinking, the general direction of their spirit or consciousness when analyzing the data of the experience of the external world is different than ours. Primitive mentality is prepositional, i.e. his judgments, conclusions, and therefore practical actions are not based on those logical laws from which the European starts when interpreting his experience. Although the writer's explanation of those laws, on the basis of which primitive consciousness is formed, cannot be accepted as a whole - because the writer considers that process independently of material production and material conditions of human society, and also for the reason that science has already advanced and reached new results - nevertheless "Primitive Mentality" retains its meaning both in the scientific point of view, and as an interesting reading for every educated person. In addition, the work is interesting because the remnants, sometimes quite large remnants, of the primitive way of thinking have remained in the civilized man (various lucky and unlucky numbers and days, superstitions up to religious mysticism). From the methodological point of view, the work is very accessible to the reader: in each chapter, the author first presents rich factual material from the life and thoughts of primitive tribes, which is above all interesting, and then gives an interpretation and draws general conclusions, all in very good and understandable language. Therefore, every reader - even one who is not particularly interested in sociological problems - will find something for himself in this valuable book.
One copy is available
- Slight damage to the dust jacket