Beyond Two Worlds

Book excerpt: Examines the origins, efficacy, legacy, and consequences of envisioning both Native and non-Native “worlds.” Beyond Two Worlds brings together scholars of Native history and Native American studies to offer fresh insights into the methodological and conceptual significance of the “two-worlds framework.” They address the following questions: Where did the two-worlds framework originate? How has it changed over time? How does it continue to operate in today’s world? Most people recognize the language of binaries birthed by the two-worlds trope—savage and civilized, East and West, primitive and modern. For more than four centuries, this lexicon has served as a grammar for settler colonialism. While many scholars have chastised this type of terminology in recent years, the power behind these words persists. With imagination and a critical evaluation of how language, politics, economics, and culture all influence the expectations that we place on one another, the contributors to this volume rethink the two-worlds trope, adding considerably to our understanding of the past and present.