The Myth of the Noble Savage

International Studies 498/Music 512 Seminar Winter 2004 1:30-3:50 Th, Music 212 http://faculty.washington.edu/ellingsn/Noble_Savage.html

Prof. Ter Ellingson 50 Music 543-7211 ellingsn@u.washington.edu

Readings – Week 1

Week 1 special Internet assignment:

Do a Google search for “Noble Savage” (include the quotes to get the exact phrase). Print out a list of 20 results according to your alphabetical order in the class list (i.e., first name on the list gets results 1-20; second name, 21-40; etc.), and copy the list for distribution to the class. Visit all 20 of the websites on your list, and prepare a short report (2-4 pp.) to give in class next week. How is the Noble Savage presented in these sites? Is it treated positively or negatively? Does it refer to specific tribal people, or not; and if not, to whom does it refer? Who are the authors and/or sponsors of the web site, and what do they seem to be trying to accomplish by including or referring to the Noble Savage?

Week 1 required readings:

Montagu, Mary Wortley

1716-18b Turkish Embassy Letters. London: Virago. Read Letters XXVII, XXXI, XXXIV.

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques

1755b A Discourse on Inequality. Maurice Cranston, tr. London: Penguin, 1984. Read Preface and Parts I-II, pp. 67-137. Be sure to read Rousseau’s Notes, p. 137 ff.

Optional further readings: Critical Anthropology and Cultural Studies

Ellingson, Ter

2001 The Myth of the Noble Savage. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Degerando (DeGerando), Joseph-Marie

1800 (1969) The Observation of Savage Peoples. F. C. T. Moore, tr. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 59-104. See also Fabian 1983, below.

DeGerando: Time travel; Temporalism as racism

SUZLIB/Suzzallo General Stacks E121 .G74 1991

Meek, Ronald

1976 Social Science and the Ignoble Savage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Chain of Being and Universal Fatherhood of God; Pope's declaration of humanity; Racism/polygenesis as critique of relig authority