The Last Savage

What constructs one’s interpretation of the truth more strongly: culture or personal experiences? For Michael Behar, author of “The Selling of the Last Savage,” the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

A freelance writer born and raised in the Unites States, Behar is aghast after discovering Kelly Woolford, a ruffian promising outfitted, “first-contact” trips in Papua New Guinea. Woolford’s first-contact trips promise to expose tourists to native tribes who have never before seen outsiders, hence a first contact with the outside world. Before embarking on his first-contact trip, Behar fears that the trip, if real, is morally wrong and built upon barbaric and imperialistic motivations. Behar condemns Woolford, feeling that a man who sells danger

Though he tries to remain analytical, questioning if indeed “... [in] The 21st century, there were still nomadic hunter-gatherers out there using stone tools and rubbing sticks together to start a fire,” Behar soon begins to exhibit visceral reactions to the environment (Behar, 1). Though he claims to be in Papua for journalistic purposes, Behar cannot maintain an impartial disposition. After contact with tribesmen one of Woolford’s native outfitters believed to be native peoples, Behar undergoes a transformation. That evening, he begins to fear his surroundings, telling readers “The jungle is claustrophobic and, at times, maddening—the incessant rain, heat, and mud, the screeching of cicadas, the eerie sensation we're being watched” (Behar, 9). Abandoning his logical, systematic disguise, Behar becomes paranoid, becoming one with the primeval essence of the jungle.

Some may argue Behar is truly in danger and his survival instincts are awakening... But what separates Behar's instincts from the instincts of the bonafide imperialists he condemned earlier in his article? Behar subtly pokes fun at the actions of “European explorers [who] headed for new lands,” saying they “often traveled with a throng of soldiers in tow, just in case” (Behar, 4). Yet, similarly to European explorers, curiosity and riches

Behar closes his essay by asking himself “First-contact or Hoax? I may never know” (Behar, 14). Airing his reservations with the same anthropologists he consulted before the expedition, Behar is presented with many opinions congruent to his own. Unanimously, the experts report that Woolford is a fraud peddling hoaxes from a remote location void of repercussions. Considering Behar’s excessively strong rebuttal of imperialism, readers should not be surprised he dismisses his experience as fake. Born and raised in modern America, Behar has been pruned from childhood to recoil at the notion of imperialism -- can we expect him to admit he exhibits the same imperialistic qualities his ancestors possessed? Of course not; the greatest lies are the ones we tell ourselves. Behar simply cannot cope with the realities of human nature. -- Behar, like his ancestors exhibit animalistic impulses to be alpha, to steal, covet, to pillage and to claim territory. Unfortunately for Behar, no hoax theories or disgruntled professionals can destroy the carnal nature of humans. The anthropologists reacted to Behar’s footage from Papua with skepticism for the same reasons Behar did -- they have lived in a society which suppresses human barbarism by denouncing its existence. To end his essay,