Guillaume Raynal and the Eighteenth-Century Cult of the Noble Savage

Abstract

In the popular mind, no eighteeth-century writer is, or was, more closely linked with the cult of the noble savage than J. J. Rousseau. It was, after all, Rousseau who was twice caricatured by the theater of the time as walking on all-fours while munching a head of lettuce.' Though it is true that Rousseau did use an idealized state of nature-a fleeting moment prior to organized society when individuals living in isolation enjoyed perfect equality and total freedom-as a starting point for his politico-economic theories,2 he does not, and perhaps never has, deserved his reputation as noble savagery's most eloquent or persistent champion. Rousseau's state of nature and its virtuous inhabitants were a purely theoretical concept, unsupported by an empirical data, and in fact resembled no savage society then actually existing or which had ever existed. Modem anthropology would almost certainly dispute Rousseau's assumption that any creature which could properly be called "human" had ever lived in total isolation. Guillaume Raynal, though himself unversed in the as-yet-unfounded science of anthropology, did question this