3
moment of creation as a correlate of the extent of their degeneration from Christian faith and
civilized behavior. Reports of unnatural behavior—e.g. cannibalism and human sacrifice—and
low levels of development of the arts and sciences confirmed the distance of the Amerindians
from the norms of human (i.e. European) practice. Numerous thinkers sought ways to contain
the disorder the Indians represented: they were placed below the threshold of humanity and justly
enslaved or extinguished; or, where their humanity was accepted, the differences the Indians
exhibited were translated into a form of infancy or childhood that might be corrected and guided
by European tutelage. The pedagogical component of imperialism was thus put into place quite
early. Over the next century or more, others would build on this understanding by locating the
North American natives as examples of the earliest state of human existence.
By the middle of the eighteenth century, the novelty of the Amerindians had worn off and
the moral threat of cannibalism and human sacrifice had receded. In addition, for most
Enlightened thinkers, the imperative to preserve scriptural and/or classical authority was replaced
by the demands of a scientific history of humankind. The Indians continued to represent
difference, but the remaining important marker of the Amerindians—low levels of development
of the arts and sciences—would need to be incorporated into emerging theories of moral or civic
philosophy. The temporal separation of the Indians and Europeans became, in the hands of
Smith and the Frenchman Turgot, a theory of historical development with four ages or stages:
from hunting and gathering, shepherding, and agriculture, to commerce.
6
The movement from
one stage to another appears internal or immanent to processes at each stage, as, in Smith’s
words, “a great, an immense machine, whose regular and harmonious movements produce a
5
We draw on our earlier work here: Naeem Inayatullah and David L. Blaney, International Relations and the
Problem of Difference (New York: Routledge, 2004), chapter 2.
Convention