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dragoness_e2013-08-17:
There are people who just don't want Rousseau's "noble savage" to die, even though it is an archetype that never existed in any age of the world, as far as we can tell.
I read Charles Mann's "1491" recently, and found myself comparing the war between Tikal and Calakmul to the Peloponnesian War. That was when I realized my own conceptions of indigenous Americans as "noble savages" was finally dead.
Closer to home is Old Stone Fort in Tennessee. The local park guides would have you believe that that 'fort' is a misnomer and it was just some kind of "ritual site", because "they didn't have any enemies that we knew of". My spouse and I looked at the site built on bluffs at the confluence of two small rivers, the archaeological evidence of palisade walls on the landward approach, and the dog-leg entrance to the site, and, both being military science enthusiasts, said, "Nope. This was a fort. They had enemies, or Old Stone Fort would not have been so obviously a defensive work. Might want to look around for those enemies."
Sadly, being just visiting tourists and not renowned archaeologists, we only got polite smiles at our "mistaken" notions.
There are people who just don't want Rousseau's "noble savage" to die, even though it is an archetype that never existed in any age of the world, as far as we can tell.
I read Charles Mann's "1491" recently, and found myself comparing the war between Tikal and Calakmul to the Peloponnesian War. That was when I realized my own conceptions of indigenous Americans as "noble savages" was finally dead.
Closer to home is Old Stone Fort in Tennessee. The local park guides would have you believe that that 'fort' is a misnomer and it was just some kind of "ritual site", because "they didn't have any enemies that we knew of". My spouse and I looked at the site built on bluffs at the confluence of two small rivers, the archaeological evidence of palisade walls on the landward approach, and the dog-leg entrance to the site, and, both being military science enthusiasts, said, "Nope. This was a fort. They had enemies, or Old Stone Fort would not have been so obviously a defensive work. Might want to look around for those enemies."
Sadly, being just visiting tourists and not renowned archaeologists, we only got polite smiles at our "mistaken" notions.
