noble savage
Primitive virtue myth
Noble savage is the romanticized notion that humans uncorrupted by civilization are naturally virtuous, peaceful, and content.
The concept emerged in European philosophy to critique modern society by contrasting it with idealized indigenous peoples.
The term is now often pejorative, used to criticize portrayals that strip real cultures of complexity: The film's noble savage trope reduces an entire nation to spiritual props for the white protagonist's journey.
- RousseauFrench surname, philosopher or painter
- EmileFrench masculine given name
- social contractAgreement exchanging freedom for order
- state of natureHypothetical pre-governmental human existence
- primitivismIdealization of pre-modern life
amour-propre · cultural critique · romanticize · moral relativism · idealize · golden age · uncorrupted · back to nature · anti-modernism · ethnology · native · paradise · lost paradise · innocence · natural · virgin land · heathen · wilderness
- character tropesantihero, hero, damsel in distress, mentor, femme fatale
- stock charactersvillain, sidekick, hero, damsel in distress, fool
- story tropesquest, hero's journey, plot twist, chosen one, red herring
- archetypeshero, villain, trickster, mentor, mother
- French EnlightenmentVoltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Montesquieu
- literary archetypestragic hero, antihero, heroine, villain, tortured soul