Denis Diderot SUPPLEMENT TO THE VOYAGE OF BOUGAINVILLE - Essay Example

Denis Diderot’s “Supplement to the Voyage of Bougainville is a commentary on the misapprehension of the distinction of a civilized society to the primitive world. It upholds the difference of the otherness perceived by the European voyager and the promiscuity that inevitably goes hand in hand with it and his dumbfounded reactions to their obscure practices. Diderot’s work, written centuries ago and published posthumously because of its incredulous content at the time, is something that transcended its time.

It was an insightful depiction in an era that was intolerant of such claims, considered even as blasphemous religiously and politically. The assumed re-enactment is not so much a stretch as it is, though admittedly varied in content, with its own accord and merit in terms of content over authenticity. The wisdom of Orou is easily perceptible in his discourse with the ship’s Chaplain. Orou’s representation of the justification of the customs of Tahiti enlightens the reader on the discrepancy between the justifications of morals between the “primitive” place and the technologically advanced Europeans.

Diderot belittles the concept of European colonization and domination over the world in the guise of civilizing the alleged savages and bringing order. “We are free: and see thou hast planted in our earth the title of our future slavery. Thou art neither god nor demon. Who art thou then to make slaves?” (1796). The arrival of the colonizers marks the imprisonment and the slavery of peaceful men living under structured communities which may not be in accordance with how the former see as in accordance with their own but are nevertheless valid as their own.

There is no desire among the Tahitiens to barter what the Europeans perceive as ignorance in exchange for their promise of knowledge. All that is necessary for their existence are available to the end of the promotion of what is palpably good for them. The presumption of superiority imposed by the Western world was dismissed by Diderot constructively throughout the discourse. The conversation between Orou and the Chaplain revolved around such issues as sex, marriage, incest, jealousy and the priesthood.

The Chaplain, naturally a man of chastity, cannot bring himself to accept the dispensability of marriage and the unobstructed practice of sex together with the custom of exchange of partners especially when he was presented Orou’s daughter openly. The settlement maintains the necessity of men above all others and the importance of propagation with the qualities that are desired from the opposite sex such as health, beauty and bravery. “We have established among ourselves a circulation of men, women and children, or rather arms of all ages and capacities, which is far more important than your merchandise, which is only the product of them” (Diderot, 1796).

These characteristics and customs are far more imperative than those which are basically by-products created by men themselves. Morals are not a question of general applicability because what may be acceptable in one could be deplorable in the other but this does not yield supremacy. Diderot puts emphasis on the objective perspective of looking at the imposition of 18th Century Europe upon colonized countries. It speaks of going back to nature and being able to detach from all worldly concepts to take a better look upon the reality of things.

All of this significance given to things which are fundamentally superfluous from the existence of the earliest men pulls him further away from nature. It creates upon every man a contradiction in himself between laws, morals, religious beliefs, property rights and political views and his primordial inclination to that which makes him simply human. Diderot simplifies it by saying “If you aspire to be a tyrant, civilize him. Poison him as best you can with a morality contrary to nature” (1796).

This is by the essence, the basic formula of colonization. BibliographyDiderot, D. (1796). Supplement to the Voyage of Bougainville. Retrieved September 22, 2011