The savage in european social thought; A prelude to the conceptualization of the divergent peoples and cultures of Australia and Oceania

Abstract

The savage, either Noble or Ignoble, is a European mythical creation a mytheme (Lemaire 1980:16). In European social thought mainly hunting and gathering societies (American Indians, Australian Aborigines) or hor ticulturalists (Pacific Islanders) have served as a model for the develop ment of this mytheme. These societies have been pictured as precisely the opposite of European civilization. As such they have fulfilled a double function in European philosophy and ideology. On the one hand the contrast with European civilization has been phrased in negative terms: no progress but stagnation; not civilized but cruel and primitive; no history but timelessness; not logical but pre-logical. In this respect the concepts 'Primitive' and 'Savage' were antipodes of the European situation and they formed a legitimation for the European process of civilization. However, these societies have been objects not only of antipathy, and even distaste, but also of desire and nostalgia. Again hunting and gathering societies were pictured as the exact opposite of the European way of life, but this time with positive connotations: human beings in these societies were still living in a natural state, free from the oppressive bonds of civilization. These Children of Nature did not yet know what social and sexual restrictions were. They also lived in close harmony with their natural environment, which provided all their material and biological needs. All this has been lost in the process of civilization. In both cases the ideas about the nature of primitive societies are mythical creations which serve as an antithesis for the notion of European civilization: the first-mentioned attitude as a justification for progress, development and even colonization; the second as a fundamental criticism of that selfsame process.