Comprehension and Miscomprehension Between French Essay

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"Their superstitions are infinite, their feast, their medicines, their fishing, their hunting, their wars -- in short almost their whole life turns upon this pivot; dreams, above all have here great credit" (Foner 16). There are a number of value judgments within this quotation; almost all of them are negative. The religious beliefs and practices of the Micmac have been reduced to "superstitions" by the priest. What is revealing is that almost all of the practices of these people -- including their means of providing food and health care and engaging in social conflict, are likened to "dreams." Yet all of these facets of the Micmac that de Brebeuf names are simply different points of culture that exist between the Europeans and the Native Americans. Because they are different, the priest himself does not believe in them and dismisses them as having a basis in fantasy.

It is interesting to note that the value judgments that de Brebeuf and others like him place on simple cultural differences between the Native Americans and Europeans is the source of the refutation in the anonymous written work of the French assessment of Micmac practices. Therefore, the low esteem of the French for the Micmac has inspired the latter to harbor the same sentiment for the former. Despite the negative connotations associated with the reply of the unnamed Native American leader, this written work still reveals the values of these people.

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These values are forged in a degree of power and will to live that is self-maintained -- although not for much longer due to the European influence and the systematic destruction of Native Americans they would engender in the U.S. -- and that the Europeans, constantly seeking trade and needing something or another from a different group of people, do not have, and which is alluded to in the following quotation. "Which of these two is wisest and happiest -- he who labours without ceasing and only obtains, and that with great trouble, enough to live on, or he who rests in comfort and finds all that he needs in the pleasure of hunting and fishing?" (Foner 20). Alternatively, the values presented within the de Brebeuf's assessment of Micmac culture simply reveals that those values are Eurocentric, and that any point of deviation is inherently wrong because it is not endorsed by European practices.

In conclusion, the Micmac assess the French's cultures based on standards of autonomy and hegemony that are important to the Native Americans. The French base their analysis of the Micmac people based on all of the former's cultural practices -- which are evidently important to them. The travesty, of course, is that the European culture went out of its way to eradicate that power and autonomy that was the source of the Native American's existence and cultural practices.

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