Mythologizing the Indian: Indian as a Natural Man/Barbarian/Noble Savage

В результаті широкого міфологізування, при ближчому знайомстві описувачів з матеріалом, що описується, в надрах колоніального періоду народилась двоїста метафора Нового Світу: образ райського саду, де небачені, чудні дари природи, тубільці миролюбні та гостинні, природа м’яка та ласкава, а життя – благословення Боже. Майже не рідше трапляється і протилежна низка образів: хаща, «пустеля» без берегів, повна небезпеки, диких звірів та людей, підступна та загрозлива – справжній кут пекла на землі. Такі уявлення, звісно, мали за основу саме загальноєвропейську релігійну та літературну традицію; проте саме в Новому Світі вони брали участь у формуванні культурних комплексів майбутньої нації. Наприклад, знаменитий епізод з «Історії Віргінії» Джона Сміта, в якому йдеться про врятування автора донькою вождя Повхатана, Покахонтас, має міфологічний і фольклорний характер...Насправді, найправдоподібніше, відбувалася ритуальна церемонія прийняття до племені.

(Ващенко А.В. Колониальный период: вклад индейской и негритянской культур// История литературы США. Т.1. М., 1997, с.458)

captain john smith

The story of Captain John Smith being saved by Pocahontas is mythic. It suggests a story of forbidden love—a version of Romeo and Juliet being played on the stage of the American wilderness. But instead of enemy families of Montagues and Capulets, this hero and heroine belong to enemy families of mankind. Captain John Smith and Pocahontas were not just two star-crossed lovers, their story is a parable about the love and the unity of the races of man. It therefore has overtones of the Garden of Eden myth and so suggests an idyllic, personal, literary version of the "Peaceable Kingdom" (Is. 11:6) where "the wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the falling together; and a little child shall lead them."

In the context of Smith's history, however, what one primarily sees in the early Virginia explorations is not peace but war. The whites constantly tried to get food and information from the Indians, and the Indians as constantly tried to get tools and weapons from the whites—and to maneuver the whites into a helpless position where the Indians could massacre them with impunity. Smith and Powhatan were well-matched opponents. Just as Powhatan hoped to use Smith as his lieutenant in the constant intertribal warfare, so the Virginia Company of London had Smith crown Powhatan, hoping to use him as an instrument of English policy in Virginia. Powhatan died in 1618, but one suspects that his brother's attempt at genocide in the Virginia massacre of 1622 would also have been Powhatan's answer to the increasing numbers of white men. In the early days, however, the whites were not as much of a threat to Powhatan as his traditional Indian foes were.

In fact, there is no evidence that the Indian princess Pocahontas loved Captain John Smith, and it even seems unlikely that Pocahontas really saved Smith from death. Instead, Powhatan probably chose her to sponsor Smith for adoption into the tribe. She acted as his mother in the adoption ceremony. But Smith did not speak the Indian language (although he was learning) and did not know the customs. He had received some reassurance that Powhatan intended to free him. But it looked to him as if the Indians were fattening him up to eat him. Then came the ceremony. At the climactic moment: "two great stones were brought before Powhatan: then as many as could laid hands on him [Smith], dragged him to them [the stones], and thereon laid his head, and being ready with their clubs, to beat out his brains, Pocahontas the King's dearest daughter, when no intreaty could prevail, got his head in her arms, and laid her own upon his to save him from death."

What else could Smith think but that Pocahontas saved him?

(An Early American Reader, Washington, D.C., 1992, p.390-391).

Дата добавления: 2015-06-27