"Ah, Tahiti. The lush island whose carefree natives the painter Paul Gaughain used as icons of primitive bliss. The serene culture which Jean-Jacques Rousseau considered evidence that humans had been 'noble savages,' peaceful and benign, before their corruption by civilization. Unfortunately, as the anthropologist Lawrence Keeley has noted, Rousseau relied for this conclusion on reports of Tahiti that had omitted relevant parts of its history. For example: the custom in which a victorious warrior would "pound his vanquished foe's corpse flat with his heavy war club, cut a slit through the well-crushed victim and don him as a trophy poncho"" (Robert Wright, Nonzero, italics added).This may be the most badass thing I've heard in my entire life.
RATING: Off the motherfucking chart.
(Image from www.oceansbridge.com.)
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6 comments:
I hear this is one of Oprah's Favorite Things.
Yeah, she said she was gonna do that to Star Jones.
I never liked Rousseau.
I say that but I have a picture next to his tomb in the Pantheon, so I guess I appreciate him.
Your picture is next to Rousseau's tomb?
Yeah, also next to Voltaire.
Some of the French consider me the greatest philosopher ever.
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