Why are indigenous religions are no longer called primitive religions but instead are called primal religions?

In Social Linguistics, they say that Words are like flags, fought over, waved about, sometimes burnt, but most - a symbol that can instill deep emotions in concerned populations. "Primitive" implies "simple, uncultured, uneducated" - as in pre-recorded history age of the human race. "Primal" means "Relating to an early stage in evolutionary development" (dictionary.com), but it can also mean "fundamental/essential". Primal religions, as a generalization, do not make a distinction between the physical and the metaphysical - a tree is a thing and a spirit.