Certain ideas entrench themselves as fundamental, and the rule of thumb is that such ideas are invariably self-serving-they promote the interests of the group that holds them, and they form the reality upon which that group acts. Whether we use terms like image, stereotype or construct, we are talking about the same thing: ideas about a particular group that serve to characterize all the individuals within that group. Stereotyping as a subject for study may be historical, but the emotions it arouses are eminently present day. Today it is difficult even to talk about the racial stereotypes once so confidently assumed. What strange things did the Indians do to drive the evil spirits away? What strange things did the Indians believe about spirits? It was a time of unblushing certainty about the superiority of civilization to “savagery.” “In what three ways were the Indians different from the white men,” the school text asked, and “What did the white people think of the Indians?” Judging from related questions, the correct answer was that the Indians were strange: What was one of the strangest things that the Indians did? Nature Transformed is made possible by grants from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations.Īn early twentieth-century elementary school textbook quizzed pupils on their grasp of the lesson devoted to American Indians. The Effects of Removal on American Indian Tribesīuffalo Tales: The Near-Extermination of the American Bison Paleoindians and the Great Pleistocene Die-Off American Indians: The Image of the Indian, Nature Transformed, TeacherServe®, National Humanities CenterĪmerican Indians: The Image of the Indian
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