The Eskimo entry of the Diderot&d’Alembert’s Encyclopédie[Encyclopaedia]conveys a stereotyped,preformed,and caricatured image of the folk,built in with bias,omissions,and generalizations.It emphasizes their...The Eskimo entry of the Diderot&d’Alembert’s Encyclopédie[Encyclopaedia]conveys a stereotyped,preformed,and caricatured image of the folk,built in with bias,omissions,and generalizations.It emphasizes their bestiality and primitivism,to stick them as the prototype of the savagery,the personification of a degenerated and shy humanity of the borders.The author of the entry,the well-known Chevalier de Jaucourt,widely plagiarizes an undisclosed source,“Une lettre de Ste Helene,du 30 Octobre 1751”[An October 30,1751 letter from Ste Helene],a purportedly anonymous text,the author of which is identified here in Mère[Mather]Marie-Andrée Duplessis de Sainte-Hélène.The Chevalier bafflingly removes all the sentences of the Lettre which can turn-out celebratory of the Eskimos’technological skill and their religious sense.These severe cuts show an adverse apriori on the veracity of a document written by a woman,and—what is more—a nun.展开更多
文摘The Eskimo entry of the Diderot&d’Alembert’s Encyclopédie[Encyclopaedia]conveys a stereotyped,preformed,and caricatured image of the folk,built in with bias,omissions,and generalizations.It emphasizes their bestiality and primitivism,to stick them as the prototype of the savagery,the personification of a degenerated and shy humanity of the borders.The author of the entry,the well-known Chevalier de Jaucourt,widely plagiarizes an undisclosed source,“Une lettre de Ste Helene,du 30 Octobre 1751”[An October 30,1751 letter from Ste Helene],a purportedly anonymous text,the author of which is identified here in Mère[Mather]Marie-Andrée Duplessis de Sainte-Hélène.The Chevalier bafflingly removes all the sentences of the Lettre which can turn-out celebratory of the Eskimos’technological skill and their religious sense.These severe cuts show an adverse apriori on the veracity of a document written by a woman,and—what is more—a nun.
