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Braxton The theory of social construction states that many concepts that appear naturally are really the result of human actions and choices. The British constructed the myth that the American Indians were savages for their own economic benefit. Because the British needed to have a legitimate and verifiable reason in order for the countrymen of Great Britain to advocate the taking of the lands of America from the Indians, the British developed a scheme of developing a myth to perceive the Indians as savages, and that it was the British's duty to beautify the lands of America and to educate the heathen Indians in the light of the Christian faith. The British developed this socially constructed myth, as described by M. Bowden in "The Invention of Native American Tradition, " through these four stages: image formation, myth creation, myth taken for granted as fact, and universalization. The British created the image that the Indians were savage through a misleading presentation of the physical environment and culture surrounding the Indians.
Because the Indian women farm-worked, there was no evidence of government, and they were non-Christian, the British easily created the image that they were the "saints" who were envisioned by God to civilize the Indians and the circumscribing land to justify their stealing of the land. The natural landscape was described as being a "Desart Wildernesse, " which was hideous and uncultivated. In the myth creation, the British accentuated the achievement of the first settlers through stating that the land appeared untouched, when in reality the land was already "discovered. " In the third stage of myth formation, James Fenimore Cooper talked of the virgin forest of the Americas, but in reality, the Indians practiced clearing, and manipulated the landscape. Thus, Cooper added to the social construction of the myth of the Indians. In the fourth and final stage, scholars mistook the primeval forest of the Indians to be the "Desart Wildernesse" as late as the 1900 's, and help the universalization of the social construction of the myth that the Indians were savage. The American Indians actually had a rigid social structure and an elaborate system of burying their dead elite.
Through constructing huge mounds made of earth, the Indians created mouth burial mounds and a place for the kings to live above everyone else in the tribe. In the movie, "Myths and Moundbuilders, " the British did not want their countrymen to find out that the Indians had a heirachical social structure and were intelligent enough to erect huge burial mounds that were geometric in shape. In order to prevent this from happening, scientists at the time created the story that an ancient Indian race that was now extinct made these mounds, and the savage Indians that were still alive and procreating killed this civilized and beautiful Indian race that was totally distinct from the one still present in America. This is yet another example of the British manipulating stories that led to the social construction of the myth of the native American savage. When the colonists came to the New World, they made maps to record there findings and to create a sense of knowledge and power. In "Silent Witness" by L.
De Verse, he critically analyzes the absence of recognition that the Indians received for their participation in the process of map making undertook by the explorers. After analyzing early maps, he realized through the way that the maps looked that the Indians either made the maps or the maps were based on native American maps. For example, the Cortes map of Mexico City portrayed a dominating rectangular enclosure of the central temple, which was a traditional Aztec symbol for human sacrifice. Because the map makers omitted the native American participation, they added to the social contruction that the Indians were savages, when in reality they were not. The myth was used to justify the taking of the land from the Indians and the maintaining of power by the settlers. Bibliography:
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Research essay sample on Social Construction Native American
