@Bi: the 'noble savage' fallacy --- Your guess is right! Jean-Jacques Rousseau was probably the thinker who contributed the most to the circulation of the concept (myth) of noble savage. As a philosopher!

But the context, as you say in the text, changes the meanings. Later, unfortunately 'noble savage' entered into the vocabulary of politicians and, used in the colonial context, lost its original 'noblesse'.

Source author: Petru Dumitriu PetruD@diplomacy.edu