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To my knowledge primordialism is the idea that there are certain bounded cultural groups or ethnicities which are unique in their own right, and which have existed since time immemorial. Thus, certain scholars have used primordialist arguments to proclaim that specific tribal group, nations, or other imagined communities have always existed and have been groups throughout history. The problem with primordialism is that it doesn't allow for the creation of new groups like say, the Americans, or acknowledge the fact that "cultures" are not necessarily always grouped into clearly delineated separate ethnicities or nations. For instance, there was a lot of internal variation within Italy (and there still is) before the country was united under a single government: people identified with their localities more than with the "Italian" nation in many cases. Yet, a primordialist argument would posit that Italians have constituted a nation since time immemorial, and that's problematic considering the fact that the country has so much internal cultural variation and that there has never been one clearly bounded "Italian" nation of people which is somehow set apart from all other so called nations. Rather, there are a variety of groups of people who have interacted and shared cultural traits throughout time, and have come to constitute what is Italy today. But, we can't claim that Italians have been Italians since time immemorial, and that's the type of argument that primordialists make (often about tribal groups which in fact were in many cases not separated into the specific tribes we see today in North America prior to European contact; oftentimes for land claims cases lawyers use primordialist arguments to claim that specific tribes have claim to certain lands).
The tricky thing is that human groups are porous, amorphous, in constant flux. We're always intermarrying and languages mix, and we adopt traits from each other. Thus, though there are clear groupings of human beings into ethnicities, these ethnicities are never clearly bounded; i.e. a Romanian can move to Canada, have a child, and that child will be considered Canadian. This type of thing has been happening all throughout history, so though certain groups do have long standing group consciousness, we always mix, and groups like the "Italian nation" oftentimes combine a variety of smaller groups to create a perceived whole. So, more or less, primordialism is interesting but it's in many respects problematic.
