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The Ecologically Noble Savage

Ter Ellingson

in The Myth of the Noble Savage

Looking at academic publications in more traditional media in recent years, we find the Noble Savage myth and its rhetoric enjoying widespread popularity in many disciplines. As a pseudological and ... More

Looking at academic publications in more traditional media in recent years, we find the Noble Savage myth and its rhetoric enjoying widespread popularity in many disciplines. As a pseudological and pseudoscholarly framing device that violates the foundations of the genre it emulates, the Noble Savage enables a unique and interesting variation on anthropological literary style. The creature that seized such a strong hold on the anthropological imagination in the last decade of the twentieth century, as it turns out, was not actually created by an anthropologist: it was “the Ecologically Noble Savage,” introduced in an article of that title by the conservation biologist Kent H. Redford.Less

Introduction

Ter Ellingson

in The Myth of the Noble Savage

Jean-Jacques Rousseau is still widely cited as the inventor of the “Noble Savage”—a mythic personification of natural goodness by a romantic glorification of savage life in a call for the development ... More

Jean-Jacques Rousseau is still widely cited as the inventor of the “Noble Savage”—a mythic personification of natural goodness by a romantic glorification of savage life in a call for the development of an anthropological Science of Man. This chapter suggests that not only is everything we have believed about the myth of the Noble Savage wrong, but it is so because the profession has been historically constructed in such a way as to require exactly this kind of obviously false belief. It notes that although belief in the Noble Savage never existed, the Noble Savage was indeed associated with both the conceptual and the institutional foundations of anthropology, and that there was indeed a single person who was the original source of both the Noble Savage concept and of the call for the foundation of a science of human diversity, but this person was not Rousseau.Less

The Noble Savage and the World Wide Web

Ter Ellingson

in The Myth of the Noble Savage

The story of the creation of the myth of the Noble Savage ends with its introduction into the anthropological disputes and political struggles over racial equality and human rights of the ... More

The story of the creation of the myth of the Noble Savage ends with its introduction into the anthropological disputes and political struggles over racial equality and human rights of the mid-nineteenth century. This chapter explores its effect on the beginning of the twenty-first century. Like the ideals of equality and human rights, which it was created to undermine, the myth has undergone numerous transformations and recontextualizations, the course of which would require a separate historical investigation to reveal. One of the more interesting places to begin is on the Internet. For a considerable number of these sites, comparisons reveal some patterns of order behind the apparent chaos. The most obvious of these patterns is the apparent tendency of such sites to fall into one or the other of two large groups, distinguished by the relatively positive or negative spin they put on the term “Noble Savage” itself.Less

Conclusion

Ter Ellingson

in The Myth of the Noble Savage

Myths are by nature timeless; and the myth of the Noble Savage will inevitably generate more or less noble and ignoble savages. But as a rhetorical construct, the Noble Savage indeed has a history, ... More

Myths are by nature timeless; and the myth of the Noble Savage will inevitably generate more or less noble and ignoble savages. But as a rhetorical construct, the Noble Savage indeed has a history, one grounded in the dual time points of Lescarbot's invention of the Noble Savage concept in 1609 and Crawfurd's construction of the myth as we know it in 1859. Realizing that the myth of the Noble Savage was a political and polemical fabrication of the racist anthropology movement in nineteenth-century Britain helps to clarify the enigmatic character of its history in the English language.Less

THE NATIVE AMERICAN IN POPULAR MUSIC

Derek B. Scott

in FROM THE EROTIC TO THE DEMONIC: On Critical Musicology

This chapter focuses on representations of the American Indian in popular styles of Western music from the 18th century to the present. The intention is to show how cultural difference is ... More

This chapter focuses on representations of the American Indian in popular styles of Western music from the 18th century to the present. The intention is to show how cultural difference is represented, when little is known or understood about the culture of those being represented, and to consider how shifting perceptions of the Native American can be related to changes in attitude to the “civilized” and the natural world. The emphasis on the popular sharpens the argument, because this kind of representation needs to be widely understood and easily assimilated in order for it to be popular. The ideology embedded in way the American Indian is represented tells us, predictably, about the attitudes of the person who stands outside Native American culture.Less

Popular Views of the Savage

Ter Ellingson

in The Myth of the Noble Savage

The existence of extensive scholarship on the Noble Savage in literary fiction allows one to see how problematic the concept is. On the one hand, it would be surprising if the writers of a “romantic” ... More

The existence of extensive scholarship on the Noble Savage in literary fiction allows one to see how problematic the concept is. On the one hand, it would be surprising if the writers of a “romantic” age had not romanticized “savages,” as they did all the other subjects of their books. On the other hand, we need to look carefully at the extent to which their treatments of particular “savage” characters did or did not support ennobling generalizations about man in a state of nature. This chapter considers a single novelist who, perhaps more than any other literary figure, has become associated with the myth of the Noble Savage. The name of the French novelist François-Auguste-René de Chateaubriand appears over and over again as a kind of ongoing background motif for many of the literary investigations of the Noble Savage theme.Less

The Noble Savage Myth and Travel-Ethnographic Literature

Ter Ellingson

in The Myth of the Noble Savage

In the interval between Lescarbot's invention of the Noble Savage concept at the beginning of the seventeenth century and its reemergence as a full-blown myth in the 1850s, the Noble Savage appears ... More

In the interval between Lescarbot's invention of the Noble Savage concept at the beginning of the seventeenth century and its reemergence as a full-blown myth in the 1850s, the Noble Savage appears to have receded into a state of virtual nonexistence. In the few cases where the terms “noble” and “savage” occur in different ethnographies, a closer look reveals that juxtapositions of nobility and the savage reveal only the most ambiguous and vestigial links with either Lescarbot's Noble Savage concept or the later myth. This chapter considers some of the characteristic features of the myth itself. The myth vaguely associates belief in the Noble Savage with the egalitarian ideals of the Enlightenment, an association implicit in its linkage with Rousseau, and whose significance only becomes clear when one looks into the history of the myth itself.Less

The Myth of the Noble Savage

Ter Ellingson

in The Myth of the Noble Savage

This chapter returns to the question of when and how the Noble Savage reentered the theoretical discourse of anthropology. It appears to have been reintroduced by John Crawfurd, soon to be elected ... More

This chapter returns to the question of when and how the Noble Savage reentered the theoretical discourse of anthropology. It appears to have been reintroduced by John Crawfurd, soon to be elected president of the Ethnological Society of London, in a paper, “On the Conditions Which Favour, Retard, or Obstruct the Early Civilization of Man,” presented to the society on April 20, 1859. This paper seems to stand as a kind of inaugural address, an announcement of the overthrow of the old ways and the ascendancy of a new anthropological racism and, above all, of a new supporting mythology.Less

The Makah Whale Hunt of 1999

Ter Ellingson

in The Myth of the Noble Savage

For a more specifically targeted example of the political uses of Ecologically Noble Savage rhetoric, this chapter turns to the case of Makah whaling. On May 17, 1999, the Makah of Neah Bay, in ... More

For a more specifically targeted example of the political uses of Ecologically Noble Savage rhetoric, this chapter turns to the case of Makah whaling. On May 17, 1999, the Makah of Neah Bay, in western Washington, killed a whale in a tribally sponsored hunt. It was the first whale hunt conducted by the tribe in more than seventy years. The Makah's primary subsistence had been based on whaling and fishing for many centuries. As they proceeded with their plans to implement the hunt, they found themselves in the midst of a rising storm of criticism that reached a momentary peak with their launch of the first tentative hunting cruises during the autumn whale migration of 1998, and which rose again during the spring 1999 migration, to burst out in a torrent of unprecedented intensity, violence, and overt racism when the hunt finally succeeded in May.Less

Racial difference and ‘The Noble Savage’

Peters Laura

in Dickens and race

Chapter three, ‘Racial Difference and ‘The Noble Savage’’ is devoted to one of Dickens’s most infamous pieces, ‘The Noble Savage’ seeking to contextualise this piece both within a range of discourses ... More

Chapter three, ‘Racial Difference and ‘The Noble Savage’’ is devoted to one of Dickens’s most infamous pieces, ‘The Noble Savage’ seeking to contextualise this piece both within a range of discourses at the time and within the trajectory of Dickens’s own thinking. It also explores the continued vibrancy of the exotic and adventure narratives tracing the influence these exert on his racial thinking. This chapter will offer a sustained engagement with Dickens’s most infamous essay, ‘The Noble Savage’ through a consideration of the larger contexts which contributed to ‘The Noble Savage’, including Dickens’s trip to America in 1842, the exchange between Thomas Carlyle and John Stuart Mill in 1849, the plethora of Learned Societies, shows and scientific study during the 1840s and 50s which made race an object of enquiry and curiosity, the public curiosity fed by the expansion of empire and the attendant wars, specifically the Kaffir Wars, and his own expedition to the East End. The chapter will then read ‘The Noble Savage’ itself as a contribution to the debates about race.Less

Poetic Nobility: Dryden, Heroism, and Savages

Ter Ellingson

in The Myth of the Noble Savage

Tracing the fate of the Noble Savage after Lescarbot leads in complex and ambiguous directions. This chapter examines Dryden's reference to the Noble Savage, apparently derived from Lescarbot's work. ... More

Tracing the fate of the Noble Savage after Lescarbot leads in complex and ambiguous directions. This chapter examines Dryden's reference to the Noble Savage, apparently derived from Lescarbot's work. Nobility, in the end, comes from hereditary descent; and things such as freedom and bravery follow from it, rather than the other way around. Dryden is a royalist defending royalty in the restoration of monarchy after the failure of Cromwell's Commonwealth in England, and he defends it eloquently. To please his “Noble Audience,” themes of nobility and exaltation play a strategic role. In addressing himself to real members of the English noble classes, Dryden shows no restraint in the dramatic intensity by which he exalts their virtues.Less

Colonialism, Savages, and Terrorism

Ter Ellingson

in The Myth of the Noble Savage

The ideas both of the Noble Savage and of an anthropological science of human diversity grew out of the writings of Renaissance European traveler-ethnographers. Both can be traced at least to the ... More

The ideas both of the Noble Savage and of an anthropological science of human diversity grew out of the writings of Renaissance European traveler-ethnographers. Both can be traced at least to the beginning of the seventeenth century, where they appear together in Marc Lescarbot's ethnography of the Indians of eastern Canada. Lescarbot was one of the most complex and interesting ethnographic writers of the French colonial enterprise. The unexpected reframing by the Indians, for example, of the French psalm singing into one side of an Indian war-song duel between opposing tribes is as striking a case of “ethnographic” transformation as any European construction of Indians as the inhabitants of a “golden age.” But Lescarbot's work became even more complex and interesting when it passed beyond travel narrative to systematic ethnography, and to serious analysis of the nature of “savage” society.Less

Historians and Philosophes

Tim Fulford

in Romantic Indians: Native Americans, British Literature, and Transatlantic Culture 1756-1830

This chapter considers the accounts of Indians made by white historians and theorists, such as Rousseau, Adam Smith, and Adam Ferguson in the 18th century.

Race, Mythmaking, and the Crisis in Ethnology

Ter Ellingson

in The Myth of the Noble Savage

The Noble Savage disappears after Lescarbot and Dryden, and does not reemerge in Rousseau. This chapter suggests that there were no accusations of Rousseau's promotion of a belief in the Noble ... More

The Noble Savage disappears after Lescarbot and Dryden, and does not reemerge in Rousseau. This chapter suggests that there were no accusations of Rousseau's promotion of a belief in the Noble Savage, suggesting that neither the concept of savage nobility nor the myth of Rousseau's invention of it had yet emerged into general discourse. The myth of the Noble Savage is a highly specific construct, combining particular rhetorical and substantive components. The specific combination of these components must necessarily have come from somewhere, even if we have not yet identified its source. The chapter examines anthropology and nineteenth-century racism and ethnology between 1854–1858.Less

People in the Forest

Robert A. Voeks

in The Ethnobotany of Eden: Rethinking the Jungle Medicine Narrative

This chapter explores the origin of the noble savage archetype so often deployed in the jungle medicinal narrative. From monstrous man-beasts to lazy and libidinous sub-humans, and finally to noble ... More

This chapter explores the origin of the noble savage archetype so often deployed in the jungle medicinal narrative. From monstrous man-beasts to lazy and libidinous sub-humans, and finally to noble jungle denizens, the inhabitants of the Torrid Zone have been constructed and deconstructed again and again since the time of the ancient Greeks. In their naked and godless simplicity, tropical people were for European visitors foil to all that was modest, civilized, and cultivated. In the most recent and relevant version of this evolving narrative, New World native peoples are depicted as peaceful and jungle-savvy environmentalists, sustainably managing their rainforest homes as they harbor and protect nature’s medicinal secrets. The chapter shows that these perceptions are largely culturally-constructed to meet the wants and needs of outsiders. It suggests that the noble savage image is spatially contingent and highly racialized; Amerindians and South Pacific Islanders were admitted early into the noble savage club, but sub-Saharan Africans are still waiting at the gate.Less

The Miscegenation Hoax

Ter Ellingson

in The Myth of the Noble Savage

In early 1864, a pamphlet called Miscegenation was published anonymously in the United States. This chapter examines P. T. Barnum's account of it in Humbugs of the World. Barnum describes the adroit ... More

In early 1864, a pamphlet called Miscegenation was published anonymously in the United States. This chapter examines P. T. Barnum's account of it in Humbugs of the World. Barnum describes the adroit manipulations of politicians and the media used to make the pamphlet an international sensation and to associate it in the public mind with the Republicans—then the party of Lincoln, emancipation, and racial equality—to discredit them in that year's election campaign. In the five years from 1859 to 1864, three great anthropological discursive hoaxes had been successfully constructed and sold to a broad consumership: the “Noble Savage,” the “missing link,” and “miscegenation.” Crawfurd had been instrumental in promoting two of the three, including the Noble Savage, which would have the longest-running success of all.Less

Primitivism and Philo-primitivism

Ben Etherington

in Literary Primitivism

Chapter 2 advances the historical side of the argument by drawing a distinction between “philo-primitivism” and “emphatic primitivism.” It finds that the philo-primitivist ideal of the “noble savage” ... More

Chapter 2 advances the historical side of the argument by drawing a distinction between “philo-primitivism” and “emphatic primitivism.” It finds that the philo-primitivist ideal of the “noble savage” was the product of earlier periods of European colonial expansion when there yet existed social worlds beyond the perimeter of the capitalist world-system. As the “primitive accumulation” of noncapitalist societies accelerated, so the ideal of the primitive became entirely speculative and utopian. Emphatic primitivism’s emergence coincides with the period that political economists at the time labeled “Imperialism,” a concept explored with reference to the work of Rosa Luxemburg in particular. The chapter ends with a discussion of the notion prevalent at this time that the “primitive” was in fact the product of “civilized” sublimation. Other writers and artists discussed include John Dryden, George Catlin, Charles Darwin, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Robert Louis Stevenson, Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, and Friedrich Nietzsche.Less

The Islanders Speak: Pacific Reflections in the British Press

Jennifer Fuller

in Dark Paradise: Pacific Islands in the Nineteenth-Century British Imagination

The final chapter looks at the works of Pacific islanders that were published and circulated by the British press and that have remained almost invisible to literary critics. While influenced and ... More

The final chapter looks at the works of Pacific islanders that were published and circulated by the British press and that have remained almost invisible to literary critics. While influenced and edited by the British, the stories of Lee Boo, Ta’unga, and Queen Emma provide a small glimpse into the ways in which Pacific peoples viewed the British and how the British, in turn, conceived of islanders. The History of Lee Boo, while lacking historical accuracy, presents the islanders as complex individuals unable to be categorized simply as “noble savages” or in need of a superior civilizing force. Instead, Lee Boo shows islanders as having the desire and ability to improve their own societies. Ta’unga’s writings provide a very different perspective on missionary enterprises. While Ta’unga agrees with the Christian missions, his account shows the tensions between understanding and respecting Polynesian traditions and his desire to spread the gospel. Finally, the legend of Queen Emma undermines the British narrative of white male colonial superiority over the islands. With her mixed heritage as well as her gender, Emma flaunted tradition and presented a new vision of agency.Less