Anthropology in sci-fi: Star Trek vs Valerian and Laureline
anQuite recently I watched a film adaptation of the classic French space opera comic Valerian and Laureline. The film, Valerian and the City of a thousand Planets, depicts a group of indigenous aliens wielding high tech weapons to pull off the kidnapping of a commanding officer of the United Federation. As such it is up to the space mercenaries Valerian and Laureline to rescue the general. Now I will not go into a review of the film, but rather it’s depiction of Indigenous populations that sets it apart from productions such as the tv series Star Trek and the film Avatar.
For starters, let us discuss how Star Trek fares. Star Trek’s approach is based on the infamous “Prime Directive” in which starfleet will not intervene on a so-called “pre-warp” civilization’s development. This entails that they will not give an indigenous population on a planetary body technology that entails the baggage of imperialism as it has been done to people in the Americas, Australia, and other parts of the world. However, a pre-warp civilization is not to be permitted into the Federation. Why is that? Apparently, starfleet only permits membership if they are “warp capable” or possessing the technology of warp drives. This creates a problem in that it appears that the Federation is rather elitist and prejudiced towards civilizations that do not possess warp drives. It also does not help that the Federation holds a social evolutionist view of civilizations, especially as they have concepts such as the “Richter Scale of Culture” to distinguish pre-warp and warp capable civilizations, which was first introduced in the 1967 Original Series episode Errand of Mercy. This is a very outdated concept even at the time it was introduced, as founding North American cultural anthropologist Franz Boas developed the concept of cultural relativism circa 1887-1920, and was recognized in 1940. So, with that, Star Trek’s view on Indigenous populations assumes that they cannot understand technologies such as warp drives.
Moving onto the 2009 film Avatar, the movie presents the cat-like Na’vi as having contact with humans and learned their language. Yet, the Na’vi are never presented learning how to use human technology or even trading cultural artifacts, such clothing or art. This is a stark contrast to how Indigenous populations such as the Inuit on Baffin Island learned to use rifles, snow mobiles, and Western maps to enhance their already efficient methods of transportation with sleds, harpoons, and navigation of the Island. In other words, we never see the Na’vi using human weapons against them, or adopting human customs other than English. Instead, at the film’s climax, they are shown using bows and arrows and spears. This depiction comes off as racist and stereotypical and is ahistorical as natives in the real world used rifles to fight colonizers such as the Lakota adopting horses and guns.
Now looking into Valerian and the City of a thousand Planets, the natives of whom are called the Pearls, adapt human technologies in order to begin their adventure. In the film, after their home planet is destroyed, the Pearls adapt the use of starships from the burned out hull of a cargo ship, and from a computer program that was translated in their language. It is from here that they learned to speak dozens of languages, computer science, physics, botiny, chartology, astronomy, mathematics, and so forth. In my view, the Pearls are nonstereotypical as they are shown to not only pick up and comprehend the world outside their comfort zone, but that they can be innovative, inventive and creative. This depiction avoids the stereotype of natives using hand-to-hand combat and short-ranged weapons and that they are not shown to be child-like. Though, having only recently viewed the film, it remains to be seen if they managed to remove the white savior trope presented in Star Trek and Avatar. One other note, it’s implied in the film that indigenous populations are welcomed in Valerian’s and Lauraline’s version of the Federation, unlike in Star Trek.
In the future, I believe that Star Trek’s and Avatar’s creators should take a few notes from Valerian and Lauraline about depicting natives. It’s been over 60 years since Star Trek debuted, and they still depict Indigenous populations in a stereotypical manner to this day. Avatar does not do any better either. Hence, it’s time to drop the ethnocentricism and social evolutionism.