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Stories of captivity among North American Indians dating from the 17th century in many ways parallel the more recent narratives of alien abduction. Telling a story inevitably involves elements of selection, and in both Indian captivity narratives and alien abduction narratives the elements included are often analogous. They share a number of common structures, conventions, themes, and images. I will begin by outlining the origin and some of the salient features of Indian captivity and the alien abduction phenomenon. Next, some explicit comparisons will be drawn between the narratives of Indian captivity and alien abduction. Finally, some interpretations of these similarities are suggested.
Background
The historian Richard Slotkin claims that the captivity narrative provided America with it first coherent mythical literature (95). The earliest publication of an Indian captivity story in the form of a popular book came in 1682. This account, titled The Sovereignty and Goodness of God, detailed the capture and life of Mrs Mary Rowlandson among Indians. Rowlandson was kidnapped from Lancaster, Massachusetts, in 1675 during King Philip's War. Over thirty editions of Rowlandson's story were published by 1937 (Kestler xxv). By 1800 some 700 different captivity narratives were published in the United States, and they remained a staple of popular literature into the 19th century (Schafer 49). Although captivity narratives have been most evident in the United States, they appear to be a common feature of many frontier communities. The stories surrounding Eliza Fraser, captured in Australia by Aborigines after a shipwreck, echo in many ways the Indian captivities of America. The tales of beachcombers on Pacific Islands frequently fit into this genre as well. For example Herman Melville's novel Ty)pee, set in the Marquesas Islands, uses many of the same plot devices only replacing the Indians with Polynesians.
Capture was a widely used tactic of Amerindian warfare. In Native American culture, captives might be used to compensate for the loss of relatives, replenish the population, serve a form of psychological warfare, or be used to obtain ransom (Namias 4). While the earliest Indian captivity stories were genuine first-- person accounts, they were later manipulated by others for their own motives (Slotkin 95). Puritan ministers used the stories to warn of the wages of sin. Frequently captivity stories functioned as...