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The Searchers Movie Essay

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The movie, named The Searchers, produced in 1956 starring John Wayne. It was directed by John Ford and the list of characters had many stars. I chose this film because of the many examples of concepts learned in cultural anthropology. Ethan Edwards, played by John Wayne, returns to his brother’s house in Texas after his service in the Confederate Army. His adopted nephew, Martin, meets him and Ethan says “Folks might mistake you for a half breed.” This racist comment was the first of many by Ethan although Martin’s phenotype was that of a white man. The Comanche warriors stole cattle and while the men were looking for the cattle, the Comanche burned Ethan’s brother’s house and killed everyone but Debbie and Lucy. Debbie and Lucy were taken …show more content…

Brad rode off to get revenge and was killed. Martin and Ethan continued to follow the Comanche. Ethan refers to the Native American males as bucks. This is a derogatory term used in an attempt by Caucasians to make the Native Americans seem less than human. Due to the ignorance of the Comanche culture, Martin buys a wife with a hat. Ethan speaks Comanche enough to find out Martin’s wife knew where Scar’s band was at. He spoke to her harshly to find out what she knew. His syntax was different than the language Look spoke. Look ran off in the night and left a trail to follow. They found a burned out village and Look was dead in a tepee. They left the dead and rode on. At a government holding area the pair found four girls who had been rescued. They had been enculturated into the Comanche culture. They were acting in a way that Ethan said they were not white anymore. They had been culturally assimilated into the Comanche society and their ethnicity was the Comanche culture. Ethan attempted ethnocide by killing buffalo. He said the buffalo “won’t feed Comanche this winter”. Martin stopped him from killing more buffalo. The commentary said Ethan did something Martin still had no clue as to why it had

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