SC - Silphium & Alisander (fwd)

[Charles McCathieNevile]

In a message dated 6/22/98 11:50:58 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
oftraquair at hotmail.com writes:

<< can't you just
 see some German immigrants (Penn. Dutch maybe, or Moravians) having the pots
 and the non-german neighbors being impressed with them and calling them after
 their owners?  OK, so I'm making assumtions now!
 
 Bonne >>

Having a Pennsylvania Dutch background  and ancestry I clearly understand the
need for some to make "nice" with terms that they feel are slightly
denegrating. However, the facts are that even the PA Dutch use the word in
such a manner. 

To go "Dutch": pay your way.
Dutchman ; affectionately insane; miserly
to speak "Dutch"; to speak nonsense; unintelligeble speach
"Dutch" : something that appears to be something other than what it is; silly;
daffy

So, IMO, "Dutch" oven makers most likely are not stretching things when they
describe the name for the cauldrons they make as "false". The modern world,
indeed, the very recent world may find the use of racial and language slurs
"politicly incorrect" but those who have come before did not have this
perception of things. Agreed that the non-German neighbors may have given the
name to the pots, the name they gave them was derogatory
since those same neighbors were also aware that these people were Germans and
not Holland natives.

The point being we should be careful when we make opinions on historical
matter NOT to be too quick with using modern thought processes and social
values when formulating those opinions.

Ras
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