Noble savage

In the 18th century culture of "Primitivism" the noble savage, uncorrupted by the influences of civilization, was considered more worthy, more authentically noble than the contemporary product of civilized training. Although the phrase noble savage first appeared in Dryden's The Conquest of Granada (1672), the idealized picture of "nature's gentleman" was an aspect of eighteenth-century Sentimentalism, among other forces at work.

The term "noble savage" expresses a concept of humanity as unencumbered by civilization; the normal essence of an unfettered human. Since the concept embodies the idea that without the bounds of civilization, humans are essentially good, the basis for the idea of the "noble savage" lies in the doctrine of the goodness of humans, expounded in the first decade of the century by Shaftesbury, who urged a would-be author “to search for that simplicity of manners, and innocence of behaviour, which has been often known among mere savages; ere they were corrupted by our commerce” (Advice to an Author, Part III.iii). His counter to the doctrine of original sin, born amid the optimistic atmosphere of Renaissance humanism, was taken up by his contemporary, the essayist Richard Steele, who attributed the corruption of contemporary manners to false education.

The concept of the noble savage has particular associations with Romanticism and with Rousseau's Romantic philosophy in particular. The opening sentence of Rousseau's Emile (1762), which has as its subtitle "de l'Éducation ("or, Concerning Education") is

“Everything is good in leaving the hands of the Creator of Things; everything degenerates in the hands of man.”

In the later 18th-century the published voyages of Captain James Cook seemed to open a glimpse into an unspoiled Edenic culture that still existed in the unspoiled and un-Christianized South Seas. By 1784 it was so much an accepted element in current discourse that Benjamin Franklin could mock some of its inconsistencies in Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America (1784). The novel Paul et Virginie appeared in 1787. Chateaubriand's sentimental romance Atala appeared in 1807.

The concept appears in many further books of early 19th century. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein forms one of the better-known examples: her monster embodies the ideal. German author Karl May employed the idea extensively in his Wild West stories. Aldous Huxley provided a later example in his novel Brave New World (published in 1932).

Origins

Nathaniel Jocelyn's 1839 picture of Joseph Cinqué, leader of the slave revolt on the ship Amistad

Around the 15th century certain European states began expanding overseas, initially in Africa, later in Asia and in the Americas. In general, they sought mineral resources (such as silver and gold), land (for the cultivation of export crops such as rice and sugar, and the cultivation of other foodstuffs to support mining communities) and labor (to work in mines and plantations). In some cases, colonizers killed the indigenous people. In other cases, the people became incorporated into the expanding states to serve as labor.

Although Europeans recognized these people to be human beings, they had no plans to treat them as equals politically or economically, and also began to speak of them as inferior socially and psychologically. In part through this and similar processes, Europeans developed a notion of "the primitive" and "the savage" that legitimized genocide and ethnocide on the one hand, and European domination on the other. This discourse extended to people of Africa, Asia, and Oceania as European colonialism, neo-colonialism, and imperialism expanded.

The idea of the "noble savage" may have served, in part, as an attempt to re-establish the value of indigenous lifestyles and illegitimatize imperial excesses - establishing exotic humans as morally superior in order to counter-balance the perceived political and economic inferiorities.

The attributes of the "noble savage" often included:

Living in harmony with Nature
Generosity and selflessness
Innocence
Inability to lie, fidelity
Physical health
Disdain of luxury
Moral courage
"Natural" intelligence or innate, untutored wisdom

Criticism

In the 20th century, the concept of the noble savage came to be seen as unrealistic and condescending. Insofar as it was based on certain stereotypes, it came to be considered a form of patronizing racism, even when it replaced the previous stereotype of the bloodthirsty savage. It has been criticized by many, for example Roger Sandall, in academic, anthropological, sociological and religious fields. For instance, some Christians, especially those who believe in the doctrine of original sin, consider mankind to be universally degenerate and sinful at heart, regardless of whatever people group or civilization they are associated with. (See a critique of the Huaorani people of Ecuador in the documentary Beyond the Gates of Splendor and the associated film End of the Spear.)

Stanley Kubrick, whose films make strong comments on human nature, rejects the idea of the noble savage:

Man isn't a noble savage, he's an ignoble savage. He is irrational, brutal, weak, silly, unable to be objective about anything where his own interests are involved — that about sums it up. I'm interested in the brutal and violent nature of man because it's a true picture of him. And any attempt to create social institutions on a false view of the nature of man is probably doomed to failure.

Literature

The noble savage as protagonist or, more often, as companion to the protagonist has long been a popular type of literary character. Perhaps the most notable early example is the character Friday from Robinson Crusoe (1719) by Daniel Defoe. Other examples include Dirk Peters from Edgar Allan Poe's The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (1838), The Noble Savage from Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, Chingachgook and Uncas from James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales (1823 and later), Queequeg from Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851), Umslpoagaas from H. Rider Haggard's Allan Quatermain (1885), and Winnetou from Karl May´s Winnetou novels (1893 and later). Tonto from the Lone Ranger radio and television programs is one of the best known examples from the 20th century.

Twentieth-century popular culture has also expressed its inherited views of the "noble savage" by placing them in fantasy or science fiction settings. Historical fantasy examples include the figures such as "Tarzan". The very meaning of "barbarian" in contemporary popular culture has become sympathetically colored through similar fantasies.

As sensitivity to racist stereotypes has increased, science fiction has often cast space aliens in the role of the noble savage.

Twentieth-century readers recast as "noble savages" some literary creatures like Caliban in Shakespeare's The Tempest or Dr. Frankenstein's creature in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818)

Another noble savage archetype appears in the person of the Siberian Nanai hunter Dersu Uzala, who became the main character of the book Dersu Uzala by the Russian explorer Vladimir Arsenyev. It has inspired two movie pictures, the 1961 Soviet film Dersu Uzala by Agasi Babayan (Агаси Бабаян), as well as the 1975 Soviet-Japanese film Dersu Uzala by Akira Kurosawa (黒澤明).

In 1964, the Australian writer Mary Durack published a fictionalised account of Yagan, an Indigenous Australian warrior who played a key part in early resistance to white colonial rule around Perth, in her children's novel The Courteous Savage: Yagan of the Swan River. When re-issued in 1976, it was renamed Yagan of the Bibbulmun because the word "Savage" was considered racist.

The 1980 film The Gods Must Be Crazy by Jamie Uys depicts a group of Bushmen from the Kalahari desert as noble savages.

"Noble Savage" is the title of the 1985 album by the American heavy metal band Virgin Steele. The title song is loosely inspired by the noble savage concept.

References

Fryd, Vivien Green. "Rereading the Indian in Benjamin West's 'Death of General Wolfe.'" American Art, Vol. 9, No. 1. (Spring, 1995), pp. 72-85.Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=1073-9300%28199521%299%3A1%3C72%3ARTIIBW%3E2.0.CO%3B2-J

External links

Dictionary of the History of Ideas"; "Primitivism in the Eighteenth Century".
The Culture Cult: The Culture Cult