Representations of the Other served Western self-critique, not knowledge of the Other

Evidence

Thus the “noble savage” became the vehicle for a wide-ranging critique of the overrefinement, religious hypocrisy and divisions by social rank that existed in the West. — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 657

Categorization

• XREF: Mechanism parallels how ‘the Orient’ functioned as a mirror for Europe’s own anxieties — central to Orientalism and also to later readings on how Muslims are instrumentalized in Western self-narration.