Final Draft

Social 10-1 Avatar Essay

DRAFT

Brandon Kent

Throughout history, people have believed that to be successful or important, they have to take over other people or countries or try to take something that’s not theirs. If you compare the Award winning Avatar to the settling of North America, the events are very similar. In both Avatar And the settling of North America, ethnocentrism, acculturation, Cultural contact, marginalization, colonialism all took place.

Paragraph 1- If the things that took place were good or bad?

Nobody can say weather the things that took place in avatar or even in our history were good or bad because it depends on who’s side your looking at. In avatar if your looking at the side of the NA’VI people, the thing’s that happened to them in the beginning and near the end were horrible. In the end, the NA’VI beat the humans and sent them back to earth. The First Nations life was pretty good before the Europeans came over. When the Europeans came over they slaughtered and took everything from the First Nations. Nearly the same exact happenings happened to the NA’VI and the First Nations, like people coming and taking and destroying their lands and taking their resources. The Europeans and the humans (sky people from avatar) are very similar because they both went to a different place to get resources.

Paragraph 2- Ethnocentrism & White Man's Burden

Ethnocentrism means that one ethnic group or culture thinks they are superior to others. Ethnocentrism and White Man's Burden are very similar because the White Man's Burden is when they think they have to fix every different culture and race. The white people actually thought that they were helping the other cultures and races by changing them into 'white' people. In the movie Avatar, they mentioned White Man's Burden but they never actually show it. The 'sky people' build schools to get the NA'VI to learn english and to learn how the 'sky people' live. There is also Ethnocentrism because the 'sky people' think they are better than the NA'VI and that the humans can take the NA'VI's resources.

Paragraph 3- Acculturation & Cultural Contact & Colonialism

Acculturation and cultural contact are very similar. Without cultural contact we can not have acculturation.

Paragraph 4- Marginalization