The Myth of the Noble Savage

The myth of the Noble Savage

  What is the myth of the Noble Savage? The noble savage is a stereotypical fictional character who symbolize the notion of the indigene (= not civilized, therefore, not "corrupted" by civilization) consequently, he embodies the humanity's instinctive purity. 

1776 performance of Thomas Southerne's Oroonoko.

 Even if it has been mostly used in fiction and philosophy, it appeared considerably in anthropological researches. 

  Historical chronology The first employment of the notion of "noble savage" borned in an english poem. It was designed for a "wild beast", a man above of the others. It's Rousseau who took back the term to designate a black person in a racist way, to use it as a justification for slavery.

  Explanation The claim that Rousseau created the myth was made by one of the nineteenth century's most notorious racists to give weight to his belief in the notion of 'inferior' races, according to a new book, The Myth of the Noble Savage .

Un Indien dans la ville by Hervé Palud

The teenager, raised in the Indian way, knows what life is: hunt, fish, light a fire, tame the animals, know the dangers of the forest and the beauties of affection and nature. In the jungle of Guyana, his father calls himself Baboon because he is different from the Indians: he has hair on his chest. In Paris, when he brings back his son who wanted to see the Eiffel Tower, the partner and concierge treat the child as a "monkey": he likes to wander in loincloth and shirtless with paintings on his nose. We are always the savage of someone. But what is better? To know how to ensure survival in nature in the lineage of primates, or to create insoluble problems in the social stress of the so-called civilization?
The story is a little naive but filled with freshness. The film shows a modest tenderness and shows well what is the basis of real human relations: they are less social than personal. It is less important to play a role than to be true. This story of a wild savage filled with gags appears in the middle of the 1990s as a philosophical tale of time.