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Glite Dictionary
💥 Extreme cruelty 🌲 Being uncivilized
savagism

savagism

9.9
A state of being seen as uncivilized or primitive by other people
  • noun
  • /ˈsævəˌdʒɪzəm/
  • Offensive
: salvajismo
  • His novel depicts the clash between civilization and savagism in a remote jungle community.

Examples

  • Many historians debate the concept of savagism when discussing the colonization of various regions.

  • In the nineteenth century, it was called savagism and civilization, and it never served Indians well.

    Academic text (2011)

  • Dvorak pursued the hyperrealities of tribal cultures, the structured ceremonies at the tenable borders of civilization in a small town, imagined tribal music as an instance of nationalism, and worried about his daughter being too close to savagism.

    Academic text (1990)

  • The documentary explored the effects of savagism on indigenous societies and their struggle for recognition.

Antonyms

sophistication
26 6.5

Being refined and cultured with wide experience of the world

civilization
1 3.9

A process by which a society becomes more advanced in culture and organization

How Civilized

civilization
406 3.7
barbarism
14 8.0
savagism
  • Offensive
9.9

Surface Forms

savagism singular
savagisms plural

Morphology

savagism = savage (transparent) = savage + ism

Standard formation: '-ism' marks a state or condition derived from 'savage', yielding 'the state of being uncivilized'; formation and meaning are regular.

Etymology

Savagism comes from savage and the ending -ism. Because savage originally comes from the Latin word silva meaning 'wood' and 'wild', people used it to mean 'outside town' or 'uncivilized', so savagism can mean the state of being primitive or lacking social development.