quoting Heartfield:
>The object of this romanticisation must preferably be a pastoral people,
>whose way of life is so simple and unadorned, that the western patron
>can invest it with a mystical authenticity.
The western patron does it to "The West" too. Like Sherman Alexie says:
I watched the movies and saw the kind of Indian I was supposed to be.
A cinematic Indian is supposed to climb mountains.
I am afraid of heights.
A cinematic Indian is supposed to wade into streams and sing songs.
I don't know how to swim.
A cinematic Indian is supposed to be a warrior.
I haven't been in a fistfight since sixth grade and she beat the crap out of me.
http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/alexie/tonto.html