ims of native americans, Apuntes de Literatura Americana

¡Descarga ims of native americans y más Apuntes en PDF de Literatura Americana solo en Docsity! Images of Native Americans Thomas Morton: The first book concerns the Indians of New England, and reports and speculates on their languages, ancestors, rites, beliefs, and way of life. Morton's account of the Native Americans is largely sympathetic, as he insists on the natives' basic goodness and humanity, admires their simple life and closeness with nature, and extols their hospitality. He draws parallels between their values and those of the English—including their love of pleasure—and contrasts them with the Puritans, who are in his view ill-educated and devoid of common humanity Mary Rowlandson refers to the Indians as violent, unmerciful, cruel, ravenous beasts, barbarous creatures, barbarous enemies, inhuman creatures, wild beasts of the forests, merciless enemies, pagans, insolent, barbarous heathens, liars (they lied to her about her son and about her husband), barbarous creatures, heathens, madmen, hard-hearted, they have tyrannical power, “roaring lions and savage bears, that feared neither God, nor man, nor the devil”. In spite of all this, she admits that many times they were generous to her and she also admits that they didn’t abuse at all her chastity. Moreover, she finds herself eating and enjoying the Indians’ food, and at times she behaves with a callousness comparable to that of her captors. She even has respect and befriends her master. In general her view on Indians is negative. Samson Occom was an Indian preacher. In his work he begins by saying that when he was 10 there was a man who went among the Indian children and determined them to read about Christianity. At first Indian people where not much interested in Christianity, but things have changed later and they started to go frequently to the meetings and to Church. It can be seen the interest of Englishmen to instruct Indians in order to spread religion among them. They had also a strong wish that Samson to be their teacher and to teach them more about the word of God. They enjoy learning to spell and to pray. Englishmen discriminated him: he was Minister and master at the same time but he gained less than other missionaries. Philip Freneau: “The Indian Burying Ground” is a poem that imaginatively analyses the Native American’s rite of burying the dead in a standing (active) posture as a meaningful act that symbolizes the continued existence of their spirit and influence among the living. The speaker is at one of the burying grounds of the native tribes, thinking over the Indian rite of burying the dead in an upright position. The visitor of the Indian graveyard meditates upon the burying rites of the native Indian peoples; the speaker is in the guise of a common man but he is challenging civilized burial customs of the Europeans. He rejects rationalism in favour of mysticism. When civilized culture demands burying a corpse in a prone (sleeping) position, death is seen as an eternal 'sleep' for the soul. The speaker goes on to argue, his imagination becoming more active. The poet, here, has tried to convey a message that the culture of American Indians is as significant as the culture of Christians. All the cultures do have significance in the world. And instead of frowning at something different, we should acknowledge the diversity- in people, in customs, in language, religion and culture. Benjamin Franklin “Remarks concerning the Savages of North America” "Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America," is a subtle and even humorous plea for cultural and racial tolerance. He urged people to see things from the other's perspective. He begins his essay with this thesis, "Savages we call them, because their manners differ from ours, which we think the perfection of civility; they think the same of theirs." He proceeds to give a number of anecdotes which illustrate the absurdity of thinking Euro-American culture "superior" to Native American culture. Franklin turns cultural and racial superiority on its head, looking at it from the Native American perspective, and showing that neither is better, they are only different. Another example Franklin gives is the story of a Swedish minister, who preached a sermon to the chiefs of the Susquehanah people, telling them of "the principal historical facts on which our religion is founded; such as the fall of our first parents by eating an apple, the coming of Christ to repair the mischief, His miracles and suffering, etc." The chiefs listened courteously, as was their custom, and responded like this: "What you have told us is all very good. It is indeed bad to eat apples. It is better to make them all into cider. We are much obliged by your kindness in coming so far, to tell us these things which you have heard from your mothers. In return, I will tell you some of those we have heard from ours," and proceeded to tell the missionary their own creation story, of the sky woman who came down from the clouds to give the people the plants which have sustained them: maize, kidney beans, and tobacco. The Swedish missionary responded, arrogantly, "What I delivered to you were sacred truths; but what you tell me is mere fable, fiction, and falsehood." To which one of the chiefs replied, offended, "My brother, it seems your friends have not done you justice in your education; they have not well instructed you in the rules of common civility. You saw that we, who understand and practice those rules, believed all your stories; why do you refuse to believe ours?" Franklin ends his essay with contrasting descriptions of hospitality, as shown by whites and Native Americans. He describes the hospitality experienced by Conrad Weiser, a government representative who visited the Six Nations. Weiser called upon his friend Canessatego, who "embraced him, spread furs for him to sit on, placed before him some boiled beans and venison and mixed some rum and water for him to drink." Canessatego showed his white guest respect and hospitality, which was the custom of his people. As the two men shared a pipe and began to converse, the old Indian began to discuss his experiences visiting the towns of white people for trading purposes. He tells the story of one Hans Hansen, who tried to cheat him. Canessatego concludes his story, and Franklin concludes his essay, like this: "If a white man, in traveling through our country, enters one of our cabins, we all treat him as I treat you: we dry him if he is wet, we warm him if he is cold, we give him meat and drink, that he may allay his thirst and hunger; and we spread soft furs for him to rest and sleep on; we demand nothing in return. But, if I go into a white man's house at Albany, and ask for victuals and drink, they say, 'Where is your money?' and if I have none, 'Get out, you Indian dog.' You see, they have not yet learned these little good things, that we need no meetings [he is speaking of church] to be instructed in, because our mother's taught them to us when we