Eden and the Noble Savage

“Stu-mick-o-sucks (Buffalo Bull’s Back Fat, Head Chief, Blood Tribe) (1832) by George Catlin, Smithsonian American Art Museum, (PD)

Confronted with the human history of war, crime, corruption, and environmental destruction, some part of our hearts longs for a lost Eden.

The Noble Savage

The Greek poet Homer, as long ago as the 8^th or 9^th Century BC, idealized primitive societies like the Arcadians [1A].  The historian Tacitus in 98 AD attributed honesty and bravery to the German tribes Romans viewed as barbarians [1B].

The 18^th Century philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau in his work Discourse on Inequality argued that human beings in their “natural” uncivilized state are inherently good, peaceful, and egalitarian [1C].  This popularized the idea of the “noble savage”, though Rousseau did not use the term. 

The stereotype of the “noble savage” (essentially a fantasy) was applied to indigenous groups like Native Americans, though ultimately with negative consequences for them [1D][2].  While romanticizing such groups, Europeans could distance themselves, and legitimize colonization.  Indigenous people were natural, but Europeans were considered culturally superior.

The Nobel Savage Today

The concept of the “noble savage” never reflected the real nature of indigenous people, or the complexity of relations with them.  Nor did it describe the true nature of mankind.

Nonetheless, that concept has again been adopted by our own culture in the context of environmentalism and land stewardship.   Indigenous groups from Australia to the Amazon are said to possess a concern for nature unmatched by the industrial West [3A].

Unfortunately, anthropology has disproven this myth.  For one thing, ancient man is likely to have played a role in the extinction of animals like the mammoth and saber tooth tiger [3B].  The Polynesians caused a wave of extinctions once they settled Oceania, just as the Romans did in their time, and we are doing in ours [3C][4].

What then of indigenous people living in primitive conditions today?  The Tukano of the Amazon are often held up as examples of environmental consciousness and sustainable conduct.  But their deliberate spacing of settlements to conserve resources, prohibition against deforestation, and careful management of fisheries actually constitute adaptive strategies in a harsh environment [3D].

When indigenous people have gained access to modern technologies for oil extraction, mining, and real estate development, most have chosen to pursue them as means of achieving greater prosperity – sometimes with devastating results [3E].

Natural Man

Rejecting Christianity and the Christian concept of sin, Jean-Jacques Rousseau painted a picture not of natural man, but of fallen man…then glorified him [5].  Rousseau’s supposed natural man is without moral obligations or pangs of conscience.  This fiction was, at some level, an attempt by Rousseau to justify his own sins (including the desertion of his children).

Whether we read Genesis literally or figuratively, Paradise was lost through man’s rejection of God, and mankind’s nature fundamentally altered by sin.  We are left pilgrims and wanderers, yearning for something better. 

We may devise explanations for our own behavior.  But, without the benefit of grace, we see only what we want to see about the world around us and ourselves.

—

[1A through 1D]  Wikipedia, “Noble savage”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_savage.

[2]  Facing History, “From ‘Noble Savage’ to ‘Wretched Indian’”, 9/20/19,    https://www.facinghistory.org/en-ca/resource-library/noble-savage-wretched-indian.

[3A through 3E]  Noema, “The Myth of the Noble Savage” by Tristan Sobye Rapp, 7/9/24, https://www.noemamag.com/paradise-lost/.

[4]  El Pais, “Feed them to the lions!  How Ancient Rome demonstrated its brutality and power” by Guillermo Altares, 9/18/22, https://english.elpais.com/culture/2022-09-18/feed-them-to-the-lions-how-ancient-rome-demonstrated-its-brutality-and-power.html#:~:text=They%20even%20caused%20extinctions%20of%20several%20species,or%20to%20use%20them%20for%20trading%20purposes.&text=Keith%20Hopkins%20and%20Mary%20Beard%20recount%20in,400%20leopards%20and%20600%20lions%20were%20killed.

[5]  Saints and Scoundrels by Benjamin Wiker, EWTN Publishing, Copyright 2017.

READERS CAN FIND MY VIEWS ON ABUSE AND ABUSE-RELATED ISSUES AT ANNA WALDHERR A Voice Reclaimed, Surviving Child Abuse
https://avoicereclaimed.com