Jan 23

01/23/2012

MAPS ARE LESS PORTRAYALS OF SPATIAL REALITIES THEN PORTRAYALS OF POWER
AND VALUES.

Idea of Brazil as a Paradise full of “Indians” as innocent as Adam &
Eve.  Beautiful, peaceful and productive = paradisaical

Natives are portrayed in a Greco-Roman style (stance) to convey the
concept of the Noble Savage from a romanticized pagan past-worthy of
European investment

Amerigo Vespucci Book- Mundus Novus (New World) Ambiguous concept

Example of stylistic Romanizing:
Feather skirts on Indians are similar to the fig leaves used to cover
Adam & Eve -Ironic that they are now “enlightened” and yet also
“fallen” men capable of evil (such as cannibalism and incest which
were not new these Amerindian culture)

Indians resisted and Euros started to demonize these resistant
behaviors to justify negative reactions and simply because
its a new exciting story

Theodore De Bry -Flanders -tension between the strange wild natives and
classical past
-gateways, inviting you on a journey
-compelling image
-Ruebens-moment for greatest potential for change, moment before climax
-sources or Bosch are very different
-Brazil film Turistas (alternatively titled Paradise Lost)- tourists kidnapped by
doctor who intends to harvest their organs - a modern consumption of humans/cannibalism 
-Dr & natives are tired of whites exploiting Brazilians and are now exploiting whites
-We are desensitized to images so De Bry would have shocked in his day just as Turistas shocks us now

The more uncivilized a group is the more need there is for help, reinforcing an efforts to support a cause that may otherwise wane

Cesare Ripa-Allegory of the four continents fro Iconologia-1593
-America is the weakest continent-not even clothed, eating people