In 1744, was published the book The New Science from Giambattista Vico, in which 'primitives' are seen as children and children as possessing the capacity of imagination. Within the Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns, Vico argued that 'primitives' as children were closer to art (imagination, poetry).
Some quotes:
BOOK I Establishment of Principles
"The second shows that the first men, the children as it were of the human race, not being able to form intelligible class-concepts of things, has a natural need to create poetic characters, that is, imaginative class-concepts or universals, by reducing them as to certain models or ideal portraits all the particular specifies which resembled them" (p.66)
"211 In children memory is most vigorous, and imagination is therefore excessively vivid, for imagination is nothing but extended or compounded memory.
212 This axiom is the explanation of the vividness of the poetic images the world had to form in its first childhood" (p.67)
"215 Children excel in imitation; we observe them generally amuse themselves by imitating what they are able to understand.
216 This axiom shows that the world in its infancy was composed of poetic nations, for poetry is nothing but imitation" (p.67)
+ information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Science