Abstract:
18th-19th centuries travel to the "contact zones" of diverse Indigenous communities by European
Others initiated new experiences, which were further re-presented to Europe via detailed, albeit onesided
narratives. The Indigenous – as a site or as a prototype – were imagined, fictionalized, and
befriended by German explorer-intellectuals through Travel Literature. The European understanding
of the indigenous world was heightened, while, the Indigenous counter-gaze reveals mutual curiosity
and resistance through a re-reading of Indigenous acts of song, dance, laughter and silence found in
the travelogues of Humboldt and Forster.
