The manner in which Indians identified other Indians emphasized their uniqueness, whereas Europeans tended to lump all Indians together when portraying their cultural values. Thus, from the beginning of contact, Euro-Americans in positions of cultural influence as writers, publishers, military officials, or politicians relied on generalizations about how Indians lived, why they acted the way they did, and what concerned them. Europeans usually described Indians in ways that differentiated Indians as the Other—as something not European, not "civilized."
Stereotyping
General English conceptions of Indians in early America fell into two categories: ignoble savages and noble savages. Both notions portrayed Indians as primitive in comparison to Europeans, but the ignoble savage view focused on perceived negative characteristics of Indian culture and the noble savage perspective saw much to admire, if not necessarily to emulate, in Indian cultures. Whether ignoble or noble, Indians in European eyes remained primitive and exotic, worthy of either scorn or pity but not equality. The ignoble Indian was always lacking something that European civilization took for granted, such as permanent housing, proper clothing, political institutions, religion (meaning Christianity), a written language (or indeed any language at all worthy of the name), correct morals, agriculture, livestock, and appropriate gender roles.
This is a free page. This page contains 165 words. This
article contains 1,597 words (approx. 5 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Article with our Native Americans: Images in Popular Culture Access Pass.
