Skewed Interpretation and Misrepresentation
The Victorian-era fascination in ‘exotic’ cultures is a clear means of rationalizing aspects of their own culture through comparisons- be it through societal norms or reinforcing notions of cultural superiority. Yet conversely, these interests often manipulate the subject culture’s systems of belief, refracting it through a Judeo-Christian lens to a degree where their interpretations of a culture are built on a flawed foundation. This imperially-tinged disenfranchisement is seen through the deliberate re-working of a culture’s myths to suit Judeo-Christian morals, or the complete misattribution of a culture’s stories. The following artefacts serve as examples of this skewing and misrepresentation in the New World, where colonial governments attempted (oftentimes erroneously) to explain those they displaced, while highlighting how most accounts of New World mythology derive from biased colonial sources.
An Iroquois Chief
This is an illustration of an Iroquois chief, found in a large work on a variety of Indigenous groups found throughout the Americas, circa 1859. This image accompanies a section on the Indigenous groups of what’s today Southern Ontario and the Northern United States, namely the Six Nations and the Iroquois. It interestingly includes aspects of historicized myth.
Evidence of the Affinity of the Polynesians and American Indians with the Chinese and Other Nations of Asia
This small novella, written in 1872, features speculative near-anthropological theories that explore the peopling of the Americas. Greatest hits include an analysis on the similarities between Buddhist and Mesoamerican ‘zodiacs’, which, per the author, suggests pan-Pacific communication; as well as the notion that the fall of the “Hun Empire” (active through 4th cent. CE) spurred the cross-pacific migration to North America.
Excerpt and illustration from Uncle Remus' tales
Arguably one of the most infamous examples of American literature, Uncle Remus and his Legends of the Old Plantation allegedly include folktales popular among African-American slaves, including characters such as Brer Rabbit (pictured). This book carries an extremely problematic reputation, from the overt racism, a gross misrepresentation of the lives of slaves on plantations, and claims from Southern Indigenous groups which argue for an Indigenous origin for these tales, which the author misattributed.