Ethnocentricity Blog Post

The aboriginals were stereotyped by the British as natives who didn't have the capability to reason or act rationally. This was shown in several incidents through the word choice the British had chosen when they were describing the First Australians in Bennelong's obituary. It is stated in the obituary that Bennelong's form that he was born into by nature, being the aboriginal way of life, was savage. The ethnocentricity of the British played a big part in starting the conflicts between them and the aboriginals. Since they viewed the aboriginals as savage, the British came to believe that they're culture and style of living were better and more civilized. This led to the belief that the aboriginals were inferior to the British, and were basically looked down upon. They were disregarded of any type of any human emotions, and that they're opinions did not matter. As time passed, their relationship started to develop for the worse, and eventually led to several conflicts between the two. An example of one of these conflicts was when the colonists ravaged the lands and got rid of all kinds of nature to build their own buildings. Nature played a very important role in the aboriginal's culture, and when the British simply got rid of it without asking, they felt offended and mistreated. One of the aboriginals felt so offended by this, he set fire to the colonist's crops. Another conflict was when one British colonist was hunting aboriginals for sport, due to his disregard for they're emotions. This led to the aboriginal's to seek revenge and killed him as a form of retribution. This enraged the British colonists, and eventually led to massacres of aboriginals in order to punish everyone who took part in the murder. Overall I think that the majority of the conflicts that were raised was due to the British's ignorance and lack of respect for the natives. They regarded them as inhuman, and they didn't take time to think about how the aboriginals would feel if they did something that might significantly affect their country, or culture.