Rhys et al:
Do you mean Robert Berkhofer's (1978) book "The White Man's Indian:
Images of the American Indian from Columbus to the Present" (Alfred
Knopf, NY) (excellent book by the way). He looks at how the image of
"the Indian" has been constructed historically in different ways at
different times and for different reasons. Most recently in the US,
images of American Indians have been used by many ecological groups,
suggesting that the AMerican Indians were some how more "in tune" with
nature (a questionable and patronizing assumption in many regards but
one which has long roots in the US in literature stretching back to
people like James Fenimore Cooper of "Last of the Mohicans" fame, who
suggested that American Indians were "children of the forest" etc).
There was a famous ad in the 1970s w/ a picture of an American
Indian shedding a tear at the side of the road as a family of Anglos
engaged in conspicuous consumption threw their rubbish out of the car
window.
One of the more interesting contemporary political debates going
on on this side of the pond viz American Indian images is the debate
over whether sports teams should be named after them (eg the Washington
Redskins, the Atlanta Braves, Cleveland Indians, etc).
Best, Andy
On Fri, 14 Jul 2000 11:31:20 -0400 (EDT) Rhys Evans <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> dan and all,
>
> in response to the binary of bad/good & euro/native, have you read
> James Clifford's (i think it is him), "The Native Indian in the North
> American Public Imaginary"? I can't find my copy of it and so am not
> very sure of either the name or title. Does anyone have a reference
> for this article? In it he traces the discursive formations which are hung around
> native virtue/coloniser sin. It is, i think, a valuable deconstruction
> of an assumption most of us never have reason to interrogate.
>
> cheers
>
> rhys
>
> ----------------------
> Rhys Evans
> Arkleton Centre For Rural Development Research
> University of Aberdeen
> Old Aberdeen, UK AB24 3DS
>
>
_____________________
Dr. Andrew Herod
Associate Professor
Department of Geography
204 GGS Building
University of Georgia
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Tel: 706 542 2856
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When I give food to the poor, they call me a Saint.
When I ask why the poor have no food, they
call me a Communist.
Dom Helder Camara
"Con el coyote no hay aduana"
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