The "Idolatrous Peoples" of America
This question does not have an easy answer. One significant point to be made, however, is that Bernard and Picart’s focus on finding a “universal” religion brought them to writing about the “idolatry” of these people. Hunt and her colleagues argue, “If all religions shared certain qualities, then distillation of those qualities might reveal a universal underlying religion—or it might reveal that all religions suffered from the same defects.” (213) Toleration and skepticism go hand in hand, a partnership Bernard and Picart wanted to cultivate. By writing about religious traditions and cultures of North and South America and providing direct comparisons between them and those of Europe, the author and illustrator were, indeed, doing something radical. Bernard and Picart, like countless other collectors of other cultures throughout history, are not heroes separated from the beliefs of their cultural context—they are merely preservers, offering valuable information on difference that can be analyzed through a modern-day understanding of the significance of granting full, unfiltered, protected humanity for all.