This is what British people discovering American natives was like, it was so mindblowing to them that these foreign "barbaric" people were able (more able in fact) to communicate with good manners and intentions. Yet they still stayed racist as fuck and the intellectual community tried to avoid attributing ideological contributions to the actual natives that thought of them.
One of things that stood out to me learning about European contact with natives was that the reports from Euros were largely like "omg look at these weird savages, we must teach them about the Lord and good manners!" But many tribes, having come into contact with various other tribes with different cultures for centuries, were like "Oh look, people, lets say hey and give them gifts." From a young age I had the thought "the Europeans were actually the less civilized and cultured people weren't they?"
The weirdest ever European colonial contact will be that time a group of Brits assumed a group of gorillas were violent hairy natives. And sent back a very confused written report about it.
This is what British people discovering American natives was like, it was so mindblowing to them that these foreign "barbaric" people were able (more able in fact) to communicate with good manners and intentions. Yet they still stayed racist as fuck and the intellectual community tried to avoid attributing ideological contributions to the actual natives that thought of them.
One of things that stood out to me learning about European contact with natives was that the reports from Euros were largely like "omg look at these weird savages, we must teach them about the Lord and good manners!" But many tribes, having come into contact with various other tribes with different cultures for centuries, were like "Oh look, people, lets say hey and give them gifts." From a young age I had the thought "the Europeans were actually the less civilized and cultured people weren't they?"
The weirdest ever European colonial contact will be that time a group of Brits assumed a group of gorillas were violent hairy natives. And sent back a very confused written report about it.
well, the brits were a bunch of violent, hairy natives. so i think we can excuse their confusion...