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The Myth of the Noble Savage
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In this important and original study, the myth of the Noble Savage is an altogether different myth from the one defended or debunked by others over the years. That the concept of the Noble Savage was first invented by Rousseau in the mid-eighteenth century in order to glorify the "natural" life is easily refuted. The myth that persists is that there was ever, at any time, widespread belief in the nobility of savages. The fact is, as Ter Ellingson shows, the humanist eighteenth century actually avoided the term because of its association with the feudalist-colonialist mentality that had spawned it 150 years earlier.
The Noble Savage reappeared in the mid-nineteenth century, however, when the "myth" was deliberately used to fuel anthropology's oldest and most successful hoax. Ellingson's narrative follows the career of anthropologist John Crawfurd, whose political ambition and racist agenda were well served by his construction of what was manifestly a myth of savage nobility. Generations of anthropologists have accepted the existence of the myth as fact, and Ellingson makes clear the extent to which the misdirection implicit in this circumstance can enter into struggles over human rights and racial equality. His examination of the myth's influence in the late twentieth century, ranging from the World Wide Web to anthropological debates and political confrontations, rounds out this fascinating study.
The Noble Savage reappeared in the mid-nineteenth century, however, when the "myth" was deliberately used to fuel anthropology's oldest and most successful hoax. Ellingson's narrative follows the career of anthropologist John Crawfurd, whose political ambition and racist agenda were well served by his construction of what was manifestly a myth of savage nobility. Generations of anthropologists have accepted the existence of the myth as fact, and Ellingson makes clear the extent to which the misdirection implicit in this circumstance can enter into struggles over human rights and racial equality. His examination of the myth's influence in the late twentieth century, ranging from the World Wide Web to anthropological debates and political confrontations, rounds out this fascinating study.
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Yes, you can access The Myth of the Noble Savage by Ter Ellingson in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & European History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Indians,
116
– 17;
childishness
of
American
Indians
claimed
by,
111;
common
people
equated
with
sav-
ages,
114,
117;
comparison
of
“sav-
ages”
and
classical
civilizations,
115;
Golden
Age,
critique
of,
115;
licen-
tious
democracy
as
savage
state,
114;
Mishikinakwa,
“Little
Turtle,”
Miami
chief,
as
philosophical
coun-
terpart
to
Lahontan’s
Adario,
112 –
13,
116;
participant
observation
of
Egyptian
Bedouins,
110;
persecu-
tion
by
French
Revolution,
109;
Ruins,
109,
115;
travel-ethnography
of
Egypt
and
Syria,
109
Walsh,
Martin
W.,
343
Walter,
T.,
343
warfare,
American
Indian:
Lafitau
on,
77,
78–79
Washburn,
Wilcomb:
and
Bruce
Trigger,
xiv,
374
Watson,
Paul
(
see
also
Sea
Shepherd
Conservation
Society):
confronta-
tional
tactics,
362;
rhetorical
strat-
egy,
363 –
65
West
Coast
Anti-Whaling
Society,
370
whaling.
See
Makah
White,
Hayden,
342
white
supremacy,
256;
van
Evrie
on,
256
wild:
Rousseau’s
characterization
of
savages
as,
82;
“savage,”
early
syn-
onym
of,
xiii,
8,
36,
37,
48,
188,
376,
377;
symbolic
opposition
to
domesticated,
xiii,
140,
219,
293
Wilkes,
Charles:
ethnographic
obser-
vations
of
Fuegians,
146
Winterbotham,
William:
description
of
Tibetans
as
clownish,
67
Wittgenstein,
Ludwig,
348
Wokler,
Robert,
and
John
Hope
Mason,
165
women:
attendance
at
scholarly
meet-
ings,
strategic
use
of
by
Crawfurd,
294,
296,
300,
301–2,
306,
311–14,
322;
and
BAAS,
311–12;
barbarity
of
savages
toward,
asserted
by
Law-
rence,
149;
beauty
“such
as
it
is,”
59;
economic
assets
to
be
exploited,
in
Diderot’s
fictional
Tahiti,
167 –
68;
equality
of,
advocated
by
John
Stuart
Mill,
250;
and
ESL,
273,
294,
296,
300,
301–2,
306,
312 – 14,
322;
gendered
continents,
in
Guyot’s
racialized
geography,
153 –56;
Indian
women,
bestial
represen-
tations
of,
by
Hennepin,
58;
—,
erotic
appeal
of
to
Europeans,
48,
49,
205;
—,
hideous,
asserted
by
Chastellux,
107 – 8;
—,
squah,
de-
rogatory
term
used
by
Chastellux,
107 – 8;
prostitutes,
fictional
Indian,
by
Chateaubriand,
205;
Rousseau’s
ignoble
treatment
of,
93;
Saami
woman
seen
as
fury
by
Linnaeus,
130
wonder,
sense
of:
Linnaeus,
132
Wood,
Forrest
G.,
326
Wood,
J.
G.,
158,
193,
290
Woodmorappe,
John:
on
Ecologically
Noble
Savage,
358
World
Conservation
Congress,
361
World
Conservation
Union,
362
World
Wide
Web,
Noble
Savage
sites,
331–32;
academic,
335–37,
341;
fundamentalist,
337 –
41;
negative,
335;
romantic
self-affirmation,
332–34
world’s
worst
people,
search
for,
127–28,
146
Wounded
Knee,
364
Wright,
Thomas:
ESL
secretary,
277,
289,
300
“zero
of
human
society,”
119–20
Zulu
Kaffirs,
244,
245
Index
/
445
Table of contents
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface
- Introduction
- I. THE BIRTH OF THE NOBLE SAVAGE
- II. AMBIGOUS NOBILITY: ETHNOGRAPHIC DISCOURSE ON "SAVAGES" FROM LESCARBOT TO ROUSSEAU
- III. DISCURSIVE OPPOSITIONS: THE "SAVAGE" AFTER ROUSSEAU
- IV. THE RETURN OF THE NOBLE SAVAGE
- V. THE NOBLE SAVAGE MEETS THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
- Conclusion
- Notes
- References
- Index