The Myth Of The Noble Savage

Author : Ter Ellingson
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520226100
Total Pages : 468 pages
Book Rating : 4.04/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Myth of the Noble Savage written by Ter Ellingson and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2001-01-16 with total page 468 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In this study, the myth of the Noble Savage is a different myth from the one defended or debunked by others over the years. That the concept of the Noble Savage was first invented by Rousseau in the mid-eighteenth century in order to glorify the "natural" life is easily refuted ..."

Author : Lawrence H. Keeley
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199880700
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.06/5 ( download)

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Download or read book War Before Civilization written by Lawrence H. Keeley and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1997-12-18 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The myth of the peace-loving "noble savage" is persistent and pernicious. Indeed, for the last fifty years, most popular and scholarly works have agreed that prehistoric warfare was rare, harmless, unimportant, and, like smallpox, a disease of civilized societies alone. Prehistoric warfare, according to this view, was little more than a ritualized game, where casualties were limited and the effects of aggression relatively mild. Lawrence Keeley's groundbreaking War Before Civilization offers a devastating rebuttal to such comfortable myths and debunks the notion that warfare was introduced to primitive societies through contact with civilization (an idea he denounces as "the pacification of the past"). Building on much fascinating archeological and historical research and offering an astute comparison of warfare in civilized and prehistoric societies, from modern European states to the Plains Indians of North America, War Before Civilization convincingly demonstrates that prehistoric warfare was in fact more deadly, more frequent, and more ruthless than modern war. To support this point, Keeley provides a wide-ranging look at warfare and brutality in the prehistoric world. He reveals, for instance, that prehistorical tactics favoring raids and ambushes, as opposed to formal battles, often yielded a high death-rate; that adult males falling into the hands of their enemies were almost universally killed; and that surprise raids seldom spared even women and children. Keeley cites evidence of ancient massacres in many areas of the world, including the discovery in South Dakota of a prehistoric mass grave containing the remains of over 500 scalped and mutilated men, women, and children (a slaughter that took place a century and a half before the arrival of Columbus). In addition, Keeley surveys the prevalence of looting, destruction, and trophy-taking in all kinds of warfare and again finds little moral distinction between ancient warriors and civilized armies. Finally, and perhaps most controversially, he examines the evidence of cannibalism among some preliterate peoples. Keeley is a seasoned writer and his book is packed with vivid, eye-opening details (for instance, that the homicide rate of prehistoric Illinois villagers may have exceeded that of the modern United States by some 70 times). But he also goes beyond grisly facts to address the larger moral and philosophical issues raised by his work. What are the causes of war? Are human beings inherently violent? How can we ensure peace in our own time? Challenging some of our most dearly held beliefs, Keeley's conclusions are bound to stir controversy.

Author : Steven A. LeBlanc
Publisher : Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 9780312310905
Total Pages : 294 pages
Book Rating : 4.00/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Constant Battles written by Steven A. LeBlanc and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2004-08 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author argues that warfare has been a part of human existence throughout history, and considers whether humans are doomed by genetic heritage to fight each other.

Author : Napoleon A. Chagnon
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 0684855119
Total Pages : 544 pages
Book Rating : 4.10/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Noble Savages written by Napoleon A. Chagnon and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-02-18 with total page 544 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Biography.

Author : Paul Jentz
Publisher : Hackett Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1624666809
Total Pages : 238 pages
Book Rating : 4.03/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Seven Myths of Native American History written by Paul Jentz and published by Hackett Publishing. This book was released on 2018-03-02 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Seven Myths of Native American History will provide undergraduates and general readers with a very useful introduction to Native America past and present. Jentz identifies the origins and remarkable staying power of these myths at the same time he exposes and dismantles them." —Colin G. Calloway, Dartmouth College

Author : Shepard Krech
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 9780393321005
Total Pages : 322 pages
Book Rating : 4.02/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Ecological Indian written by Shepard Krech and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 1999 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Krech (anthropology, Brown U.) treats such provocative issues as whether the Eden in which Native Americans are viewed as living prior to European contact was a feature of native environmentalism or simply low population density; indigenous use of fire; and the Indian role in near-extinctions of buffalo, deer, and beaver. He concludes that early Indians' culturally-mediated closeness with nature was not always congruent with modern conservation ideas, with implications for views of, and by, contemporary Indians. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Author : Robert Whelan
Publisher : Coronet Books
ISBN 13 : 9780255364478
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.74/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Wild in Woods written by Robert Whelan and published by Coronet Books. This book was released on 1999 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ever since the discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus, the noble savage has been a potent symbol in Western cultures. The notion that there is a land where men and women live in simplicity and innocence has been used to draw unfavourable comparisons with advanced societies. The noble savage has been conscripted by many causes, from the French Revolution to the sexual revolution, but in his most recent incarnation he is the champion of conservation. The native peoples of the earth, according to this version of the legend, live in harmony with nature. They respect the rest of creation. They know how to harvest resources sustainably. They are said to be 'transparent' in the environment. However, we now know that native peoples can be as destructive to their environments as anyone else, and that historically aboriginal tribes often changed whole ecosystems by the repeated burning of forests and by hunting animal species to extinction. The noble eco-savage is a white, Western artefact.When policy issues, such as land rights, are decided on the basis of this misconception, it leads to disappointment and sometimes recriminations against the tribal peoples who fail to conform to the stereotype.

Author : D. Harvey
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 1137002549
Total Pages : 435 pages
Book Rating : 4.49/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The French Enlightenment and its Others written by D. Harvey and published by Springer. This book was released on 2012-08-06 with total page 435 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the French Enlightenment's use of cross-cultural comparisons - particularly the figures of the Chinese mandarin and American and Polynesian savage - to praise of critique aspects of European society and to draw general conclusions regarding human nature, natural law, and the rise and decline of civilizations.

Author : Jared Diamond
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1101606002
Total Pages : 512 pages
Book Rating : 4.01/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The World Until Yesterday written by Jared Diamond and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2012-12-31 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The bestselling author of Collapse and Guns, Germs and Steel surveys the history of human societies to answer the question: What can we learn from traditional societies that can make the world a better place for all of us? “As he did in his Pulitzer Prize-winning Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond continues to make us think with his mesmerizing and absorbing new book." Bookpage Most of us take for granted the features of our modern society, from air travel and telecommunications to literacy and obesity. Yet for nearly all of its six million years of existence, human society had none of these things. While the gulf that divides us from our primitive ancestors may seem unbridgeably wide, we can glimpse much of our former lifestyle in those largely traditional societies still or recently in existence. Societies like those of the New Guinea Highlanders remind us that it was only yesterday—in evolutionary time—when everything changed and that we moderns still possess bodies and social practices often better adapted to traditional than to modern conditions.The World Until Yesterday provides a mesmerizing firsthand picture of the human past as it had been for millions of years—a past that has mostly vanished—and considers what the differences between that past and our present mean for our lives today. This is Jared Diamond’s most personal book to date, as he draws extensively from his decades of field work in the Pacific islands, as well as evidence from Inuit, Amazonian Indians, Kalahari San people, and others. Diamond doesn’t romanticize traditional societies—after all, we are shocked by some of their practices—but he finds that their solutions to universal human problems such as child rearing, elder care, dispute resolution, risk, and physical fitness have much to teach us. Provocative, enlightening, and entertaining, The World Until Yesterday is an essential and fascinating read.

Author : Steven Pinker
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1101200324
Total Pages : 532 pages
Book Rating : 4.22/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Blank Slate written by Steven Pinker and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2003-08-26 with total page 532 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A brilliant inquiry into the origins of human nature from the author of Rationality, The Better Angels of Our Nature, and Enlightenment Now. "Sweeping, erudite, sharply argued, and fun to read..also highly persuasive." --Time Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize Updated with a new afterword One of the world's leading experts on language and the mind explores the idea of human nature and its moral, emotional, and political colorings. With characteristic wit, lucidity, and insight, Pinker argues that the dogma that the mind has no innate traits-a doctrine held by many intellectuals during the past century-denies our common humanity and our individual preferences, replaces objective analyses of social problems with feel-good slogans, and distorts our understanding of politics, violence, parenting, and the arts. Injecting calm and rationality into debates that are notorious for ax-grinding and mud-slinging, Pinker shows the importance of an honest acknowledgment of human nature based on science and common sense.