First encounters : from sign-language and pantomime to translation and interpretation: the first European attempts at verbal communication with the Amerindians
Part of : Γράμμα : περιοδικό θεωρίας και κριτικής ; Vol.12, No.1, 2004, pages 89-107
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89-107
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Abstract:
Possession of the New World began with the Europeans refusal to accept the Amerindians’ linguistic and consequently cultural otherness. Amerindians were, therefore, expected to be totally conversant with the European languages and culture. When they failed to be so, they were considered to be “virtual blanks," ignorant savages in need of European acculturation, religious conversion and total assimilation. Within this ideological frame, the Europeans being self-consciously "civilized people refrained from learning the Native Americans languages, but “kidnapped Indians, with comparatively superior intellect, and took them to Europe. There, these miserable people, who were stripped of their cultural conscience, were taught the European ways and, of course, a European language. The early colonial discourse is replete of incidents of natives who after being captured and alienated from their kinsmen are taught the languages of their captors and are then used as interpreters for the further exploitation and possession of the New World.
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Keywords:
άποικοι, Αμερικάνοι Ινδιάνοι, παντομίμα
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