A note about 'Inuit' and 'Eskimo'

There are many racial slurs out there but the term Eskimo, used for the people now referred to as Inuit (as they in fact most often call themselves), is technically not one of them. After reading various posts and letters in online forums on the issue, I can see that the word Eskimo has been blown out of proportion from an innocent exonym to something that people will defend against with fists flying. (I just find it oh-so-ironic when mental zombies who use political correctness to gain attention end up misrepresenting human compassion and facts with this sort of culturally divisive lexical war so let's get this out in the open, shall we?)

The word is not of European origin; we know that much. It has been purported to be derived from an Algonquian word (possibly from the Abnaki language: askimo) meaning 'raw meat eater'^[1], although other scholars refute this etymology and offer another alternative involving the Montagnais term aiachkimeou /a:jasʧime:w/ or its Cree counterpart askimew both meaning 'snowshoe-netter'^[2] (even though snowshoes were hardly a distinguishing feature of the Inuit in contrast to any other aboriginal peoples of Canada). People will often just assume a priori that the dreaded White Man invented the word but while many European immigrants have done much harm to First Nations peoples over the centuries, the origin of this word is in one way or another squarely Algonquian. This ethnonym dismays a lot of people though and it probably has to do with the mistaken belief that its meaning is somehow in itself insulting. Yet, let's allow ourselves to think about this controversy for a second. Do the Inuit eat raw meat? Why... in fact, they do! So if it's just a simple observation that Inuit happen to eat a lot of raw meat^[3], why the insult? Perhaps witiko-psychosis adds something to this perception of derogation (i.e. witiko is the Cree term for 'cannibal' as well as a mythical monster who eats humans as if they were 'raw meat' or askiwiyas). To add to the complication however, not all Eskimo-Aleut speaking peoples find the term Eskimo insulting at all^[4].

What have we learned from this? Well, aside from the fact that human beings are worrying too much about political correctness to see the forest for the trees, Eskimo carries no direct racial or cultural insult. However it happens to be insulting for some more because of modern history and cultural politics than anything. Regardless of politics though, the term Eskimo-Aleut remains the term of choice for linguists to refer to the language family with which Inuktitut, Yupik and Aleut are affiliated.


NOTES
^[1] Strong, Captive selves, captivating others: the politics and poetics of colonial American capitivity narratives (1999), p.37 (see link): "The English word Eskimo derives from a pejorative Algonquian term meaning 'raw meat eater,' and Inuit is the preferred term in the Eastern Arctic."
^[2] Bastian & Mitchell in Handbook of native american mythology (2004), p.xii (see link) assert that the 'eaters of raw meat' hypothesis is incorrect: "Many Inuit regard the word Eskimo as pejorative, in part because it was long thought, erroneously, to mean literally 'eater of raw meat.'" The etymological controversy is also mentioned by Archie Hobson on page 160 of The Oxford Dictionary of Difficult Words (2001) but details why it's not derogatory as commonly believed: "In recent years Eskimo has come to be regarded as offensive because of one of its possible etymologies (Abnaki askimo 'eater of raw meat'), but this descriptive name is accurate since Eskimos traditionally derived their vitamins from eating raw meat." Finally, another alternative etymology is suggested in Hirschfelder/Beamer, Native Americans Today: Resources and Activities for Educators, Grades 4-8 (2000), p.3: "Some linguists argue that the word originated with the Montagnais and actually means 'snowshoe netter.'" To be precise, the Montagnais term was originally used instead for the Micmac, not the Inuit.
^[3] Artibise, Interdisciplinary Approaches to Canadian Society: A Guide to the Literature (1990), p.117 (see link): "There are three Eskimo languages, but the only one in use in Canada is Inuktitut, and in that language the word for 'people' is 'Inuit,' a term which became a standard for the Eskimos of Canada after it was selected for the title of their major political organization, the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada. There is nothing derogatory about using the word 'Eskimo,' and it is still the conventional term in Alaska."
^[4] Bastian/Mitchell, Handbook of native american mythology (2004), p.xii (see link).

Nostratic-L yahoogroups update

After a slumber of several months, one of my old forums has finally awakened... or has it? In my blog entry entitled Nostratic and the curse of the online forum, I had merely explained that the topic of Nostratic Theory is bogged down by its own controversies and how online forums that serve to represent it need the maturity to strive continuously to cultivate balanced debate. That's all I said, as you can read for yourself.

Well, my exercise in free speech apparently provoked the Nostratic-L beehive and now the drones from the peanut gallery are needlessly attacking me once more. It's frustrating, it's infuriating, but they're just up to their ol' tricks again. Of course, their actions and the continued lack of mature moderation by Andy Howey are only validating precisely the criticisms I've just wrote. The moderator, to this very day, is merely biting the hand of contributors who feed him. Are these naive people for real?

What I avoided up to now, concerning Nostratic-L itself, was its added plague of racism and homophobia, but I've decided that this really needs to be discussed. Some very disturbed characters such as Patrick C. Ryan (owner of this site) purposefully misconstrue comments by others as a form of warped amusement. After I had made casual comments obviously intended to be light-hearted and poking fun at myself, Patrick never thought twice in masturbating these poignantly biggoted comments in return:

• I am not your friend in general, and in particular, not one of your homosexual friends. "Sweetie" is used among homosexuals. Use it for them, not for me.


• Since I am, myself, white, "White Trash" can only refer to social class as demonstrated by language and attitude. It cannot be racist.

(The original public record is found here.)

This is inane, if not absolutely offensive, for any educated person to be subjected to. This is why at that point I forever shunned all of these childish groups and left them to the yahoos, despite Andy Howey's disturbing requests to "get along with the depressing biggot". Like the character Archie Bunker in All in the Family, these fools have had their day in the sun and now it's over thanks to the growing democracy of blogs. Think of blogs as a Yahoogroups 2.0 perhaps where individuals are not at the mercy of demented trolls or self-important moderators who've lost track of the topic of their own forum. Bloggers, unlike oppressed Yahoogroups members, are free to be either as stupid as they choose to indulge, or as informed as they strive to be. We are also free to form are own online alliances by shunning the court jesters and linking only to the conscientious.

The best way to counter these negative trolls and the spiteful moderators who back them up is to frustrate their tactics at every turn by making their determined stupidity into a wonderful opportunity for shared discussion and learning.

So in the next few blogs I will be offering information and my own perspectives based on life experience on sexuality and gender issues throughout history, the cultural differences that exist, and how our own ethnocentric views of what should be "right" and "wrong" to us are *not*, nor have ever been, universal. In fact, these narrow-minded prejudices doom us to forever misunderstand history.

Another more immediate blog I'm inspired to do will be about Nostratic theory itself since I, for one, can easily access at least three books at the Elizabeth Dafoe Library at my University of Manitoba directly on the topic of Nostratic. If those on the Nostratic-L forum wish to discuss the topic of Nostratic intelligently, the least they could do is read any one of the authors who have written on this topic (Bomhard, Kerns, Dolgopolsky, Illich-Svitych, etc.) and refer to them, no? I hope this will be much more informative, enjoyable and positive for everyone than what Nostratic-L is thus far incapable of offering us.

Ignorance will always die a cruel death by the sword of Athena.