| Description |
xx, 297 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm |
| Contents |
1. Introduction -- Pt. I. From Renaissance to Enlightenment. 2. The savage Americans. 3. The savage Africans. 4. The puzzle of apes and men -- Pt. II. Animality and beastly man-eating. 5. The 'Negro' and the ape. 6. Towards scientific racism. 7. On the animality of savages. 8. Cannibalism at issue. 9. The fascinating horror -- Pt. III. The image of the savage as child-like. 10. From ancestor to child. 11. Rescuing the 'benighted savage': missionaries and colonial administrators. 12. Why savages are child-like: 'arrested development' and the 'biogenetic law'. 13. Heads I win, tails you lose: from 'recapitulation' to 'neoteny'. 14. How child-likeness lingered in 20th-century psychology -- Pt. IV. Perspectives and interpretations. 15. Images mirrored at the popular level. 16. The relativity of images. 17. The continuity of images -- Postscript: The images as symptoms and supports of racism |
| Summary |
This highly original socio-historical contextualization will be invaluable to scholars of psychology, sociology and anthropology, and to all those interested in the sources of racial prejudice |
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In recent times major efforts have been made to eliminate racial prejudice, but there is plenty of evidence that it still survives. Gustav Jahoda demonstrates how deeply rooted western perceptions going back more than a thousand years are still feeding racial prejudice today. In Images of Savages he explains how beliefs about monstrous humanoid man-eaters in classical antiquity and 'wild men of the woods' in the Middle Ages influenced the manner in which early explorers such as Columbus viewed the 'savages' they encountered. Another early tradition was the 'ape-likeness' of savages, and especially blacks, coupled with notions about their unbridled sexuality. This persisted through the ages, reaching its culmination during the nineteenth century, when it gained scientific respectability. Lasting well into the twentieth century, its remnants are far from being extinct in popular culture |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 258-280) and indexes |
| Subject |
Ethnocentrism.
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Prejudices.
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Racism.
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| LC no. |
98011795 |
| ISBN |
0415179521 (hbk) |
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0415188555 (paperback) |
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