Our topic this semester is SAVAGES: CIVILIZATION AND ITS SHADOW. The object of humanities study is to understand society, civilizations, and cultural productions from all available points of view, considering all the interpretative issues they raise. But the term “civilization” itself is notoriously burdened with unproven assumptions: it has often been used to validate one kind of society (or even individual) and disparage another. Alien peoples—often those inhabiting areas subject to conquest or exploitation—have been characterized as lawless barbarians, ruthless and ignorant primitives, or “noble savages.” In this course we examine the terms that have long been used to define humanity, human nature, and the social order to justify the power of one kind of society and the disempowerment of another—indigenous peoples through history and in the world today. Examples range from Homer and the Bible to contemporary tribal peoples’ use of the Internet to place their issues and concerns before the world. Class discussions and writing assignments in and out of class will give you ample opportunity to criticize the points of view represented in these works and to formulate your own ideas in collaborative exchange with other participants in the course.
It is fundamental to humanities study to consider the sources of our ideas and opinions, the media through which they are transmitted, and who has access to and control of those sources and media. Nowhere is this more evident than in our attempts to study the lives and cultures of indigenous peoples, whose languages, customs, and social orders present great challenges to mainstream American culture, and who have often been excluded from national and international representation of the issues vital to their existence. Therefore, our topic requires us not only to broaden our perspective, but to ask seriously how we know what we think we know.
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