1. the condition or quality of being savage; extreme cruelty or brutality
Usage: archaic; often considered offensive when referring to cultures
2. an uncivilized or primitive state of human society
Usage: archaic; anthropological; now considered culturally insensitive

Examples

• The explorer’s journal described what he perceived as savagism among the remote tribes.
• Nineteenth-century anthropologists often contrasted civilization with savagism.
• The novel depicted the gradual descent from civilization into savagism.
• Early colonial writings frequently used the term savagism to describe indigenous societies.
• Modern scholars reject the concept of savagism as ethnocentric and misleading.
• The theory proposed stages from savagism through barbarism to civilization.