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From: deb5@ellis.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Re: "Eskimos" (was: Re: Crystal e le "continuo dialectal")
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Date: Mon, 15 Apr 1996 23:23:45 GMT
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In article <4ku3e6$g0h@panix2.panix.com>, Pierre Jelenc <rcpj@panix.com> wrote:
>Louis-Dominique Dubeau  <ldd@step.polymtl.ca> writes:
>> 
>> It is true that nowadays in Canada, the correct word to designate them is
>> "Inuit" which I think means "men" (but I might be completely wrong on
>> this).  I was told that "Eskimo" means "eater of raw meat".
>
>But they _are_ eaters of raw meat. Nothing especially derogatory here: 
>Oysters, steak tartare, sashimi, and all that. 

Too bad the word "Eskimo" doesn't actually mean this (at least not
according to the OED).  And if a people feel that a term is derogatory
to them, than it is.  I don't think your mode of argumentation would
make most Mexican-Americans feel any better about being called "bean-
eaters".

>On the other hand, just about 50% of them are _women_.
>
>Or, if it means "human beings", does it not then mean that they consider
>all the rest of us on this planet to be subhuman? 

No, it means that they, like many (if not most) smaller peoples of
the world saw no need to create an ethnonymn referring exclusively
to themselves before the advent of linguistic anthropologists with 
their notepads and tape recorders.  Traditionally, the Eskimo iden-
tified themselves by their communities of origin.  They were not
"Inuit" (as opposed to Erqidlet, or whatever), they were Frobisher
Bay People, Mackenzie Delta People, Baffin Island People, etc.



-- 
	 Daniel "Da" von Brighoff    /\          Dilettanten
	(deb5@midway.uchicago.edu)  /__\         erhebt Euch
				   /____\      gegen die Kunst!
