Liberty, equality, fraternity. But where did they get all that? How could thinkers, Rousseau, Voltaire, Locke, Jefferson and the others, living in perfectly unequal societies, where arbitrariness, the abuse of power, the reign of religious dogma had reigned for millennia, could they even conceive that individuals could be free, have rights, free themselves from their masters, be equal? Genius, we always thought. An uncommon cognitive force. The power of deduction.
It’s possible. But if we look closely, do we not find on their way, in their debates and in their libraries, clues that some of these notions were whispered to them by peoples recently discovered and who themselves made these ideas , not a theory, but a practice of life? The indigenous nations of the Northeast of the American continent would be, in this story, the igniters of the great Enlightenment revolution.
This thesis, known to historians, is convincingly developed in the work In the Beginning Was… A New History of Mankind, by David Graeber and David Wengrow. They establish that at the beginning of the XVIIe century, the accounts of European travelers in America, whose Jesuit Relationswere bestsellers found on the work table of scholars and nobility. For good reason: the authors reported from the “savages” behaviors so opposed to European practice that they caused, surprisingly, scandal and jealousy.
“I don’t believe there is another people on earth as free as they are,” wrote Father Lallemant of the Wendats. They do not submit their will to any authority whatsoever, so that fathers have no control over their children, or rulers over their subjects, except if they please to obey them. There is no law that applies to them, no punishment inflicted on the guilty. The missionaries are particularly outraged by the free use Indigenous women make of their bodies and sexuality.
These writings also attest to the opinion, very widespread among Aboriginal people, especially those who have lived in Europe, of the absolute superiority of their society over that of the whites. The chiefs are horrified by the existence of poor people and beggars. At home, the members of the nation have their own property, weapons, tools, but the fruit of hunting, fishing and agriculture is equitably distributed and everyone must be able to eat and stay, including slaves. They constantly laugh at the fear that white leaders inspire in soldiers or settlers and are repelled by the lure of gain and wealth, by the rivalries that money arouses.
What’s more, they do so with a force of argument and an eloquence that stuns even the Jesuits, who are experts in the matter. The Black Robes admit to being sometimes moved to tears by certain speeches by leaders. Without instruction or written transmission, Aboriginal people daily practice collective discussion for decision-making, which develops as the only instrument of power the ability to convince, through emotion and logic. A Jesuit reports: “They almost all show more intelligence in their affairs, their speeches, their courtesies, their relations, their tricks and their subtleties than the most shrewd citizens and merchants of France. »
In this breeding ground of intelligence and eloquence, one man stands out: Kondiaronk, one of the leaders of the Wendat confederation. Governor Frontenac invites him to his table to enjoy his conversation and impress his guests. He meets a French aristocrat, Lahontan, who in 1702 publishes a landmark work: Dialogue with a savage (Lux), where Kondiaronk criticizes every aspect of European society, including the Christian faith.
If God had really wanted to show himself to men, he explains, he would have appeared in several nations to demonstrate his power and create a single religion. “Whereas there are five or six hundred religions, each distinct from the others, of which for you, the religion of the French is the only good, holy and true one. The authors have long thought that Lahontan had invented the arguments of his interlocutor, but recent research attests to the existence and intelligence of Kondiaronk, recognized as one of the architects of the Great Peace of 1701.
This is essential, because the authors of the Enlightenment were inspired by this work, and several others who copied or imitated it, to discuss, like Rousseau, what could be an egalitarian primitive society which would have evolved towards inequalities. contemporary, so unjust for the human race. In 1721, Tout-Paris sees the play The wild harlequin, where a Wendat who came to France takes up these reproaches against the reign of money, greed, “and in particular the monstrous inequality which makes the poor slaves of the rich”. A revolutionary statement. The piece will run for twenty years.
“In the period from 1703 to 1751, summarize Graeber and Wengrow, indigenous criticism of colonial society had a tremendous impact on European thought. What began as generalized expressions of indignation and disgust on the part of Aboriginal people (when first exposed to European mores) gradually transformed, through a thousand from conversations, conducted in dozens of languages, from Portuguese to Russian, into a substantive debate about the nature of authority, decency, social responsibility and, above all, freedom. Just in time for the founding texts of the American Revolution of 1776, then those of the French Revolution of 1789.
I don’t know what you think of it, but I must admit that I derive real jubilation from the idea that the great advances in freedom that have swept the world for half a millennium have found their inspiration, their trigger and their igniters in the First Nations of the American Northeast. They knew how to tell us their truths. We were able to hear them. The world is no longer the same. And I add to my pantheon of heroes: Kondiaronk, the Wendat.
Father, columnist and author, Jean-François Lisée led the PQ from 2016 to 2018. | [email protected] / blog: jflisee.org