Beasts or Brothers?
J.H. Elliott: When Columbus Met the Natives, 3 July 2008
The Discovery of Mankind: Atlantic Encounters in the Age of Columbus
by David Abulafia.
Yale, 379 pp., £25, April 2008,978 0 300 12582 5 Show More
by David Abulafia.
Yale, 379 pp., £25, April 2008,
Hans Staden’s True History: An Account of Cannibal Captivity in Brazil
edited and translated by Neil Whitehead and Michael Harbsmeier.
Duke, 206 pp., £12.99, September 2008,978 0 8223 4231 1 Show More
edited and translated by Neil Whitehead and Michael Harbsmeier.
Duke, 206 pp., £12.99, September 2008,
“... some of them walk around naked, and apparently without shame? Did they share in the innocence of Adam before the Fall, or did the absence of shame mean that they were nearer to beasts than to humans? What criteria were available for assessing the degree of their rationality, if indeed their natures were more rational than bestial? What right did Europeans ... ”