Representation And History Of Pocahontas

Representation and History of Pocahontas

Introduction

In the case of "Pocahontas" the representation that occurs from the tribe is from an American, ethnocentric view, that is, completely westernized. In the film the term "wild" is used to refer to the indigenous people belonging to the tribe, so that it is used with a negative connotation, where a kind of comparison or simile is made with an animal, not human.

However, the images shown in the film, leaving aside the dialogue, represent the customs and ways of life of the tribe as its crops and fishing form. Although they are not shown pejoratively, if they are represented as delayed or abnormal. Additionally, a certain role is given to see what will happen in the future with the settlers who come from England. 

Developing

The lack of similarities between cultures causes each other as different cultures and not as diverse cultures. The idea of ethnocentrism revolves around perceiving its own culture as that which is superior to the others. For this reason they are granted the right to criticize, belittle and even satirize other cultures and even more if doing this can obtain an extra benefit, Lévi-Strauss. 

People who belong to a certain culture are usually the habit of referring to their own practices as successful or good. While they consider that the customs of other cultural groups may not be positive, they are not successful and often think of them as archaic or retrograde practices, from a western point of view.

According to Aimé Césaire in "speech on colonialism". 

Europe and the West in general have a problem that prevents them from having enough respect for the dignity of people, what it means translates into immense racism and epistemic authoritarianism. The colonialism that occurs between settlers and national tribes is so strong that, a difference that could only be of ideas becomes biological differences, cultural degradations that cannot be modified. 

In the film, Pocahontas, which belongs to the indigenous tribe feels attraction for one of the colonizers, John Smith, leaving aside the idea of his father to marry her with one of the most promising members of the people. In many of their interactions, Pocahontas and John Smith try to make the other their cultural practices and in a way they argue because these are better. 

However, neither manages to convince the superiority of their culture, where ethnocentrism lies. Following this same thread, at one point in the film, John Smith makes a very important intervention that explains the conception that Americans or Western peoples have close to indigenous tribes "we have improved the lives of many savages in the world.".

conclusion

Hence the idea that the difference in culture is bad and can be seen how there is a lower and a superior that is categorized by purchasing power, technology, language, pledge them, among others. In the same way, something curious happens, where it points to representing the settlers, the people of the West as solidarity and generous to show a new face of the world to the indigenous people, without taking into account that this is the one that is necessarily the correct, it’s just different.