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Re: What's appropriate material for anthro-l?
Lief M. Hendrickson (hendrick@NOSC.MIL)
Sun, 19 Feb 1995 20:00:19 PST
On Feb. 19, Ruby Rohrlich stated:
>Of course it was U.S. citizenship, but the word "American" is, as you
>surely know, an adjective modifying "U.S." Ruby Rohrlich
A modifying adjective?! Now the language Gestapo is really
muddying the waters. Does this mean she is a citizen of
"American U.S."? Would this shorten to a citizen of "American
us"?
The discussion about the use of "American" followed Rohrlich's
criticism of how the word is often used. My initial involvement
was the observation that she used it the same way. I thought it
was ironic she's been caught by her usual little nastiness, i.e.
self-reference this time!
On Feb. 19, John McCreery expressed "amazement" toward high
anxiety over "...THE proper application of ... labels". I think
the major anxiety on this topic is on the part of the language
Gustapo (aka Rohrlich). I can deal with how the term "American"
is used without becoming anxious. I'm aware of some of the
language problems it brings up. Both Candice Bradley and I
mentioned how South Americans also view themselves as Americans.
Tim Wallace brought up the related matter that Mexico's official
name, translated from Spanish, is also "United States" ("Estados
Unidos de Mexico").
There are some interesting material and issues here. Getting
back to John McCreery, he mentioned some reference material which
I think might be worthy of reviewing (without anxiety, of
course!). Perhaps it would be worthwhile if he'd be willing to
mention a few by title besides the author's name as he has
already done for a few. Thanks, John if you have the time to do
it.
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