Indian perceptions - From 15th century to Benjamin Franklin´s 'Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America'

Seminar paper from the year 2002 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 2,4 (B), http://www.uni-jena.de/ (Institute for Anglistics/American Studies), language: English, abstract: Since the early days of American discovery by Christopher Columbus and its Native peoples, the European settlers have never stopped learning about Indian life, culture, personality and how to cope with the cultural differences that seemed so difficult to reconcile. Since then, there have always been various opinions about the cultural differences between the New and the Old World´s civilization. Confusion, scepticism, denigration and war have always accompanied the relation between Native people and European settlers until present time. Within this paper these perceptions of the Indian life, as well as the Indian view of the strangers from the Sea shall be examined and evaluated. The most interesting question to ask will be: how and most of all why did the image of the Indian people develop from the 15th century and the discovery of American Natives to Benjamin Franklin´s 'Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America' in 1784 and who or what reason caused this change in the minds of the people? [...]