ICR NO. 37 - MODERN PRIMITIVES
The Recurrent Ritual of Adornment



Octagon Press, London

Today we have moved beyond the hunter-gatherer's need for self-ornamentation and skin decoration and yet we see its revival. In the concrete jungles of our inner cities 'Modern Primitives' use tattoos, piercings and other forms of skin design to perform almost exactly the same functions as that of our ancestors: to forge 'tribal' affiliations and to express within that circle a common language and set of aesthetic values. The authors discuss the reasons for this phenomena and its implications. This is one of several selected monographs presented by the Institute for Cultural Research (London).