This week Silvia Moreno-Garcia gave us an excellent primer on the many ways in which fantasy filmmakers completely mess up Pre-Columbian cultures by lumping them all into one group, assigning practices and beliefs they don’t have, and generally turning them into random brown savages. Because who cares, right? They’re all dead anyway. Oh wait…
Hollywood is not the only offender when it comes to misrepresenting non-American, non-Western or non-white cultures. Literature, comics, television, and even games get in on this party. In your experience, what are some of the worst offenders?
I think anyone who writes and includes a “noble savage” named or unnamed as such in the text ought to be drawn and quartered. The most recent example i saw of this was coupled with what might be called a “all men are abusive a$$holes, all women who consort with them for affection, protection or survival are traitorous collaborators” fantasy in a pre industrial war camp.
Sadly this had cover art and the logo of a major publisher.