There have generally been two (mis)conceptions of the Indian since the time of Columbus and the invention of the printing press: the Noble Savage (this conception includes the Indian Princess) and the bloodthirsty villain (including the intoxicated Indian and easy squaw). These images, of the good and bad Indian, have been so strong and deeply held by non-Aboriginal cultures so as to have persisted virtually unchanged since 1493.6 Very soon after Columbus discovery, as information about the new world was dispersed and became more widely known in Europe, Aboriginal peoples became a permanent fixture in the literary and imaginative works of Old World writers and popular storytellers. Such (mis)conceptions were not limited to popular culture, but were also accepted norms for generations within the halls of academia. One could argue, in fact, that the cigar shop Indians of the twentieth century were born of academic misconception centuries earlier. The voluminous Jesuit Relations, for example, provided the French, and in turn other European scholars, a basis on which eighteenth-century deists and philosophers could draw in their moral and political writings.
Posted on: Fri, 25 Oct 2013 16:44:47 +0000
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