The First Thanksgiving: When Translation Made History

Did you know the first Thanksgiving ever celebrated in the U.S. occurred 400 years ago this year? If you didn't, then don't feel bad. Most Americans couldn't tell you when or where it happened or why the natives attended in the first place. The vital lesson of that first celebration is that despite different cultures and traditions that are a literal world apart, overcoming language and cultural barriers can lead to productive relationships amongst people worth celebrating. Those lessons are as valid today as they were then, and we should be thankful for them.

The first recorded celebration happened at a place known as the Plymouth Plantation in 1621 . It was a continuation of an English tradition of taking time to celebrate that year's harvest. There was no formal name for it at the time; they just picked a day, had a feast, and that was it. There was a thing called "Thanksgiving," but that was a day of religious prayer and fasting; yes, fasting as in not eating, and it first occurred in 1623. So how, you may ask, did two celebrations, where during one you feast and the other you fast, turn into a day for overeating? It's a fascinating story.

To summarize, the Puritans left England for the Netherlands in 1609 to avoid religious persecution by leaders of the Anglican Church under King James I. After several years in the Netherlands and to establish a community of like-minded families, a group of what we now know as "pilgrims" left the Netherlands for the New World. Their goal was to begin life anew, embracing their own culture, religion, and rules. After several failed attempts to depart, the Mayflower sailed into Cape Cod on November 21, 1620.

Their delayed departure meant the pilgrims arrived too late in the year to plant their crops. As a direct result, and because they had no established trade channels to replenish supplies, about half of the original 102 pilgrims died due to starvation or disease over the next several months. It became clear that if they were to survive, they needed help.

According to Edward Winslow's account, as told in " Mourt's Relation ," members of the Wampanoag tribe, who were the pilgrim's immediate native neighbors, first approached them to establish a peaceful relationship in late March 1621. The tribe's leader, Massasoit, understood the politics of their arrival and the effect a recent epidemic of European origin had on the stability of his society . He needed the pilgrims, and they needed him. The two groups negotiated an agreement whereby they live amongst each other peaceably, relying on each other for support based on respecting their land and property and providing mutual defense and trade opportunities.

So how did they negotiate an agreement if they didn't share a language? Ask most Americans this question and the answer you're likely to hear if they have one, is they pointed, acted out what they wanted to communicate, and taught each other bits of their language. Given the time from their first introduction to the first celebration was a matter of months, it's unlikely that's what happened. The truth is more surprising: they had translators.

The Wampanoag had two people who spoke understandable English. The first, a tribal member named Samoset, learned it from dealing with Europeans who had been visiting and trading with them for many years. The other, a prisoner of the tribe, a Patuxet Indian named Tisquantum (also known as "Squanto"), learned English after being captured by an Englishman named Thomas Hunt in 1614 and spending several years in England before returning home in 1618.

Samoset made the first contact with the pilgrims and was later joined by Squanto. Squanto was freed only after demonstrating his skill in accurately translating the dialogue between the pilgrim leader and Massasoit. Squanto also endeared himself to the pilgrims by teaching them local agricultural techniques and other tricks for living on the edge of a wilderness.

As Winslow wrote, "We have found the Indians very faithful in their Covenant of Peace with us‚Ä¶ and we, for our parts, walk as peaceably and safely in the woods here as in the highways in England." The agreement's success, which created peace between the Wampanoag and the Mayflower pilgrims that lasted a generation, was due to a recognition that two peoples from different cultures and languages needed each other. What's important and often overlooked is who reached out in the first place.

It wasn't the pilgrims who saw the importance of the situation and reached out to the natives; it was the Wampanoag. It wasn't the pilgrims who tried to learn the tribal language; the Wampanoag learned English. The bottom line is were it not for the Wampanoag's outreach to the pilgrims, their use of translators to communicate effectively, their willingness to teach the pilgrims how to grow crops; there may not have been a crop that fall to celebrate as the remaining 53 colonists may not have survived the winter. Were it not for language translators 400 years ago, we may not be celebrating Thanksgiving today. Were it not for Wampanoag translators, the Fourth Thursday in November would be just another day.

Related Insights

Spherex Classification Tool Now Approved for Home Entertainment Content in Australia

Spherex

Regulation

Classification

The Albanese Government has updated the Spherex Classification Tool approval to include ratings for theatrical releases, home entertainment, and streaming content in Australia. Spherex was previously approved to classify online films.

The update underscores the Australian Classification Board’s confidence in Spherex as a tool to help Australian viewers make informed choices about the content they consume. This means Australians can now access a range of new films sooner than they might across all formats and windows.

Spherex has a longstanding relationship with the Australian Classification Board. Since 2020, Spherex has collaborated closely with the Australian Government to ensure its technology reliably generates classification decisions that meet Australian standards and viewers' expectations.

As the world’s only commercial provider of local age ratings, Spherex has successfully produced classification decisions for high volumes of online content in over 100 countries. Since 2018, Spherex has issued over one million age ratings for digital content, including films, TV shows, and trailers, distributed by its clients worldwide.

Spherex customers, including Umbrella Entertainment, Madman Entertainment, and Sugoi Co., rely on its AI-based platform to obtain local age ratings in Australia and significantly improve efficiency, cost reduction, and market reach.

Discover how Spherex's cutting-edge AI-based platform can streamline your content classification process and enhance your market reach while reducing costs.

Visit spherex.com today and see how we can support your content distribution needs.

Read Now

nScreenNoise - Interview Spherex: Avoiding the cultural dead zone

Spherex

Culture

One of the conundrums of streaming is that although a service can deliver content globally, it is not guaranteed to be acceptable in a particular local market. Netflix found this out when it announced global availability in 2016 at CES and was quickly banned in markets like Indonesia, where some of the content was deemed too violent or sexual. In 2016, without boots on the ground in a local market, it wasn’t easy to assess whether a show or movie would be culturally acceptable.

Today, global media companies are acutely aware of the importance of their content’s cultural fit. Moreover, they have a company like Spherex to help them prepare their content to ensure it fits with any country of interest. I interviewed Teresa Phillips, the Co-Founder and CEO of Spherex, at the recent OTT.X Summit in Los Angeles. She explained how the company is leveraging AI and its massive cultural profiling database to help companies prepare content for target markets. She also explained how, in the near future, AI would aid the company in measuring a movie or show’s cultural distance from a regional market and help it avoid falling into the failure zone between cultural fit and novelty interest.

Listen to the full interview here.

Read Now

Spherex Featured in the DPP's IBC 2024: Demand versus Supply Report

Spherex

Industry

Spherex was featured in the DPP’s IBC 2024: Demand versus Supply Report, a comprehensive look at how the M&E industry is meeting key customer demands. The report focuses on the topics of empowering creators, understanding audiences, engaging users, and innovating the newsroom. It also highlights many of the technical innovations seen at the recent IBC Show.

An article by Spherex’s CEO Teresa Phillips titled "Navigating Cultural Resonance in Global Media: The Art and Science of Culture Mixing" was featured in the report, exploring how Spherex is pioneering the future of culturally informed content.

Teresa shares how cultural mixing has become a critical strategy for creating content that appeals to diverse audiences in today's global media landscape. This phenomenon involves blending elements from different cultures to craft films and television shows that resonate globally while adhering to local regulations.

However, the process of culture mixing is fraught with risks. Superficial or stereotypical representations can lead to accusations of cultural appropriation or insensitivity, alienating audiences and damaging a company's reputation. For example, imposing Western concepts on Eastern content without proper context can feel inauthentic and jarring to local viewers. These missteps highlight the need for a nuanced understanding of cultural elements to ensure that content is respectful and engaging.

To address these challenges, M&E companies are increasingly turning to data-driven solutions. Platforms like SpherexAI utilize artificial intelligence to analyze visual, audio, and textual elements, providing insights into how well content aligns with cultural and regulatory standards across over 200 countries and territories. This approach helps media companies understand the "cultural distance" between a title's origin and its target market, enabling them to make informed decisions about global distribution.

By leveraging these advanced tools, M&E companies can go beyond traditional content localization. They can create media that actively engages and resonates with diverse audiences. As the industry continues to evolve, those companies that embrace culturally informed, data-driven approaches will be better positioned to succeed, fostering cross-cultural understanding and trust while delivering globally appealing content.

Download the report here.

Read Now