Christianity, whose belief in "monogenesis" he feels causes them to see Indians as an example of a people gone to decay and corruption after the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden (37). Berkhofer states that "Indians were portrayed as corrupt copies of the Jewish or other high civilizations of the past or, at worst, the very agents of Satan's own degeneracy (37). Although, as he indicates, Christianity assumes that all people descended from Adam and Eve and are thus in a sense brothers, Berkhofer asserts that monogenesis is used to characterize Indians invidiously, thus contributing to misappropriated ideas about them and their culture. While his ideas about Christianity are less than accurate, Berkhofer does make a good point regarding the scientific image of the Indian. Science has an authoritative influence on people's thinking, since they regard it as being
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