‘in the beginning all the world was America’

Abstract

Questions of the origins of society led to imaginative debates throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. Two main camps were in evidence: those who believed that humans formed societies because they were induced by ‘social contracts’ to do so (Locke), and those who believed they were coerced or induced into societies by powerful sovereigns (Hobbes). All views of society’s origins were fuelled from travellers’ accounts of ‘savage’ societies in America, Africa and the Pacific islands.¹ Many authors, fascinated by the differences among human societies, often added to their errors, confusions and false conclusions, an almost total absence of evidence.