"civilized savage"

Yes, I know, our last post was last week and we're just supposed to comment for tomorrow. BUT I watched Saints & Strangers on the National Geographic Channel over the break and noticed several pertinent connections to our class, so I felt the need to share. The two-night movie event portrayed the arrival of colonial settlers in Plymouth, their interactions with the local native tribes, and the first Thanksgiving.

The English settlers refer to the native peoples as "savages," which, of course, made me think of our discussion of "savage" and "civilized" in relation to Oroonoko during last class. At one point, one of the tribe members who speaks English visits the English settlers in order to get a sense of why they are there. When he leaves, one of the colonists tells the other colonists not to be fooled by the "civilized savage" - because the "savage" could speak English, and was well-mannered in the colonists' company, he was considered "civilized." As we've seen in Oroonoko, these native peoples are only seen as civilized if they exhibit English characteristics.

Anyway, I thought it was interesting, and wanted to share that with you all. The videos (follow the link above) are worth checking out, if you're interested. Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving!