Re: Amerind an offensive term (was: Early Amerind assimilation

Jonathan W. Hendry (uhendjx@racer)
4 Aug 1996 16:49:17 GMT

!@?*$% (smryan@netcom.com) wrote:
: > It gets exasperating when someone insists on tribal names. There are
: > legitimate reasons for generalizing. When referring to people who

: There are legal distinctions among the various indian tribes/nations that
: do not apply to descendants of later asians, europeans, and africans.
: You're also talking about remarkably different cultures, and using one
: term hides more than it tells. Try using "Old Worlders" for Vietnamese
: hoteliers, Swiss bankers, Egyptian farmers, Siberian hunters, etc.

Perhaps it does 'hide more than it tells'. That's the wacky thing
about language - you choose your words to suit the purpose at hand.
There are times when it is reasonable, useful, and acceptable to use
a term to refer to a group. If there is a group that can be identified
by a common feature, that alone is reason enough to use a single
term to refer to the group.

Fact: You can't please everybody all of the time.
Fact: Using terms of too fine a grain is pointless.

Is the term 'homo sapien' objectionable because it doesn't account
for the myriad cultural/occupational/individual differences between
specific homo sapiens? Why?

Is the term New Yorker objectionable because it doesn't differentiate
enough?

: > system). Native Americans, of all tribes, have things in common,
: > if only that they are descended from the people who were in North
: > America first. This alone is justification for not using tribal names
: > at times.

: What do you mean by first? There were three(?) main migrations. (As well
: as, apparently, polynesians and chinese just sailing straight across from
: the west, and egyptians and atlanteans sailing from the east.)

Egyptians? Atlanteans? Get a grip.

Are all of these three main migrations considered to be oppressive
land-grabbers like the europeans? Or just the second two?

--

Jonathan W. Hendry			Views expressed herein do

Steel Driving Software, Inc.	not represent those of

steeldrv@ix.netcom.com          Steel Driving Software, Inc.

jon@exnext.com                  or Lexis-Nexis