In Rousseau's Second Discourse, he talks about the savage people and how they act. Many of the things mentioned closely parallel to Avatar. According to the Americans in Avatar, the Na-vi are "savage" people; people who are not as technologically advanced. This made me question, what makes a person a savage as opposed to civil? Just because a culture is different than one's own, does it really make the people in that society less of a human? Rousseau also discusses the Na-vi's lack of clothing. The wear a simple loin cloth, and cover themselves in a very un-modest way.
In movies with the characterization of "Savage vs. Civilized," it is clear to see the difference in their way of living and the difference of values between the people. According to Rousseau, the savage man becomes more involved with animals and learns from them, he no longer fears them, he befriends the animals and therefore they do not attack him. The "savage" culture is very into nature and has a lot of respect for everything living in their world. They only take what they need, and do their best to restore what they have taken. In Avatar they stress that all of our energy is only borrowed, and will be returned to the Earth after death. They physically connect with other creatures in their world to create a stronger bond between themselves and the animal. They also carry their bows and arrows around with them as defense. Whereas the civilized man comes in fully clothed, ready for destruction, and ready to assimilate or assassinate anyone who comes in between themselves and their goal. They don't appreciate nature, or the ways of the natives. And, because the natives appreciate nature they are seen as uncivilized because they aren't spending their time trying to advance themselves economically in the world.
All of these texts really stress the beauty and vulnerability of nature, and also man's "natural" instinct to conquer it and its people. Whereas the savages adapt to their surroundings, the civilized man will conquer it.
I really liked your post!! The comparison is great when talking about the energy borrowed. I think that it is a really interesting concept that the savages or who we (because we are considered the technologically advanced) as a Civil society have been categorized as people who need to change, when really if the civil ones are the people who have come in after and are taking over land in my opinion they should be the "savages" and adapt to the culture in which they are invading. I totally all of these texts really stress the beauty of nature and that fact is that this natural state should be considered anything but savage because it literally is defined as normal ordinary and accepted.
ReplyDeleteGood Job!