Volume 6, Article #2, 2011

Stereotypes in Anthropology

by Katie Ardrey

Stereotypes have been, and are still, a very large part of society. Different racial groups have been subjected to stereotyping in many ways, but Native Americans have been misrepresented for years. Movies, novels, and advertisements are all guilty of the different stereotypes for this group of people, movies perhaps misrepresenting Native Americans in the worst ways. These different sources show the stereotypes of the un-evolved Indian princess, savages, and the view that Europeans were thought of as more developed, which is still very much the belief of today because of the media.

Today, being evolved means being apart of a mainstream culture and values. Evolution is a social aspect, not completely a physical one. Native Americans and European are as physically evolved as one another, but Europeans were considered, and still generally are today, more evolved because of technology advancements and their taking place in social norms. Different technology has always set apart the evolved from those that are not, but now when the human brain is developed to the same extent we have begun to use other barriers to make some cultures above others. The movie Pocahontas demonstrates many stereotypes that were developed by Europeans to attempt to make Native Americans a less evolved culture.

The movie Pocahontas begins showing some basic differences between Europeans and Native Americans. In this film, Europeans are at the point in history where they are discovering ‘new worlds’, conquering everything from the native people to their land, and then colonizing and trading. They are using technologies that manufactured in bulk and destructive, such as guns. In contrast Native Americans are living not off of the land like Europeans, but using the land without damaging the resources. Also they are still using lesser weapons, like bow and arrows. Although in the movie conflict is avoided because of the romance between Pocahontas and John Smith, it is implied many times in the film that if it came to war the Europeans would easily be able to wipe out the Native Americans. At the start of the film the white men on the ship all talk of how many other ‘Indians’ they have killed before. This makes viewers of the movie unconsciously think that Europeans are superior to the Natives. In Pocahontas, Native Americans are viewed in two very stereotypical ways and European technology is blatantly flashed to prove the reasons why Europeans believed that they were more evolved than Natives.

The first obvious stereotype in Pocahontas is that of the ‘Indian princess’. Pocahontas represents the woman who incredibly beautiful but also who is naïve enough to be, “sympathetic enough to the white man's quest to be lured away from her tribe to marry into his culture, and further his mission to civilize her people” (Media Awareness Network). This stereotype is the theme of the movie, although the negative that this presents is not obviously introduced to the children’s film. This typecast of Native Americans shows that in order to be evolved according to social norms one must assimilate into a widely accepted culture. Being evolved by today’s standards means fitting in. Pocahontas does eventually succumb to many European technologies in the movie, and the Europeans are allowed to colonize the land. This being allowed only proves further that the ‘Indian Princess’ took the side of the European culture and left her less ‘evolved’ ways of life. There are many stereotypical portrayals in this film, but the most noticeable is that of Native Americans as savages.

The image of the ‘savage’ as a Native American is the most popular view of that culture showing that Natives are commonly viewed as less evolved then European cultures. The savage is seen as a threat to civilization because of their, “Bare-chested and brandishing a war lance, this warrior is the epitome of the savagery that must be courageously overcome” (Media Awareness Network). The image of the savage shows that Native Americans would attack all Europeans and needed the technology that they had to better their lives. When in reality Native Americans were completely capable of living their lives without the technology developed by Europeans. This suggests that the technologies developed do not make one more evolved than another culture necessarily. Both Native Americans and Europeans had developed basic tools and ways of lives, and were capable of speech and thought processes. The new technologies that came from Europe were not signs of evolution, but perhaps signs that they were making more advanced versions of the Native American tools, not that they were above them in an evolved state though.

The image of the savage shows Native Americans as needing European’s help to survive. This is not the case historically; generally the European settlers have needed the Native American’s help to use the land they have newly ‘conquered’. Europeans needing the help of the so called savages as shows that even new technologies do not necessarily make a culture above the elements or more knowledgeable. The stereotypes that the movie Pocahontas presents show Native Americans as being less evolved and needing European technology, when this is not true historically, which puts into question which culture is more evolved than the other.
If one was to ask today’s youth about what images come to mind when it comes to Native Americans, it would be ones from Pocahontas that seem to imply that Europeans are, in fact, superior. This is obviously not a correct way of thinking, but since, “Most common knowledge of Indians comes from the media and movies like Pocahontas” (Pewewardy), children remain uneducated on the reality of what today’s Native Americans are like. This creates a feeling of inferiority among Native American youth, and gives children an inaccurate view of American history and plants far fetched stereotypes in children’s minds. Movies, like Pocahontas, only put children at a disadvantage because of the negative representation of Native Americans that is then believed in real life.

Pocahontas is not the only movie guilty of misrepresenting Native Americans, a popular movie with teens and adults, The Last of the Mohicans, also gives viewers wrong impressions. In this film and novel there are two different kinds of Native Americans portrayed, the helpful pro-European native and the bloodthirsty savage (Dippie). This shows that if the savage natives had worked with the Europeans that they would not have met the same gruesome fate, like the obliging Native Americans. This gives the viewer the idea that the Europeans are superior to the natives because they were able to make a distinction between the two different kinds of Native Americans when the ‘bloodthirsty’ natives went after all Europeans. The view that Natives who act savagely are inferior to white Europeans was greatly enforced by this film and novel, but this not the only kind of negative representation of Native Americans that is directed at teens and adults.

Sports teams and their mascots are ever present with teenagers and adults making them very influential. There are many teams in high school, college, and professional sports that are named after Native American tribes, or are representations of natives, for example the team name Warriors. There has recently been a major debate over banning these team names from high school sports. The names make all Native Americans seem like savages, especially when it is used for the name of contact sports team. In an interview with Fox 11 News, the team names were spoken out against, “‘We're not warriors only. We're businessmen, entrepreneurs, we're community members, school board members. It just glorifies a small piece of what we really are’”. These names have negative effects on the way adults see Native Americans, because the first thing they associate them with is violent sports. This helps to impose the image of the savage or less evolved natives. The media shows in many different ways the negative stereotype of the savage Native American, but also sells the image of the Indian princess as a sex symbol.

The image of the Indian princess is used in almost every western movie ever made, but there is one day every year where Native American are overly sexualized, Halloween. While movies show this stereotype, the most troubling thing about this stereotype is that it is actually lived out when teenage girls and young women dress up as the sex symbol. This look is achieved by women dressing in,“…scantily clad in a buckskin or tunic dress, sporting a jaunty feather over two long braids” (Schmidt, Robert). Generally, the less clothing that is worn the more praised the costume will be for being realistic. The Indian Princess stereotype is extremely damaging to modern day Native American women, because all are believed to either look like a sex symbol or behave like one. This degrades Native American women and shows them as being an object for men, primarily white, to possess and manipulate. The media justifies this image by selling these costumes and showing them in advertisements and using them as the typical image in movies. The media markets this look to women and makes the stereotype a norm in society.

The effect of the Indian Princess and savage stereotype from the media on teens and adults is monumental. Children are feed the negative images as children, but that is not the only place where the stereotype needs to be corrected because it is just re-enforced to teens and adults. The images create prejudices and do not allow adults to see Native Americans as citizens that are of equal ability and qualifications for jobs or other opportunities. The labels given to natives make them outcasts in society or give them bad reputations. Stereotypes carry many negative effects with them that are generally overlooked by the media and not corrected.
The stereotypical portrayal of Native Americans as the Indian princess and as a savage have been shown in many movies and are enforced in society still, but they misrepresent a culture of humans that are just as evolved as any other. The Indian princess stereotype makes the women of Native cultures seem in need of saving and then help to assimilate into European culture. Also the label of Native Americans as savages makes them seem in need of European technology to survive and that if they are not made into a European norm then they are not fully human. The need to pigeonhole different cultures and convert them is still happening today. This suggests that European culture’s need to be spread throughout the world is it’s need to dominate and makes others subordinate making Europeans seem more savage than Native Americans have ever been. Stereotypes are ways of putting people into groups, but in the case of evolution humans are all evolved, some just in different ways than others.

Works Cited

Dippie, Brian W. “American Indians: The Image of the Indian.” Nature Transformed, TeacherServe. National Humanities Center. Electronic document. http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/nattrans/ntecoindian/essays/indimage.htm. Accessed February 12, 2011.

Fox 11 News. “American Indian Mascot Up for Debate”. LIN Television Corporation. 2/24/09. Electronic document. . http://www.fox11online.com/dpp/news/news_wluk_mishicot_indian_mascots_debate_02241748_rev1. Accessed February17, 2011.

Media Awareness Network. “Common Portrayals of Aboriginal People”. November, 2010. Electronic document. http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/stereotyping/aboriginal_people/aboriginal_portrayals.cfm. Accessed February 2011.

Pewewardy, Cornwal. “The Pocahontas Paradox:
A Cautionary Tale for Educators”. 2001. Electronic document. http://www.hanksville.org/storytellers/pewe/writing/Pocahontas.html. Accessed February 2011.

Schmidt, Robert. “Indian Women as Sex Objects”. 2007. Electronic document. http://www.bluecorncomics.com/princess.htm. Accessed February 17, 2011.