[Sca-cooks] PC terms

James Prescott prescotj at telusplanet.net
Thu Dec 30 14:48:18 PST 2010


 From the dictionary that comes with a Mac:

ORIGIN via French Esquimaux, possibly from Spanish esquimao, 
esquimal, from Montagnais aya?kimew 'netter of snowshoes,' probably 
applied first to the Micmac and later to the Eskimo (see husky 2 ).
USAGE 1 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. This 
dictionary gives another possible etymology above, but the 
etymological problem is still unresolved. 2 The peoples inhabiting 
the regions from northwestern Canada to western Greenland call 
themselves Inuit (see usage at Inuit ). Since there are no Inuit 
living in the U.S., Eskimo is the only term that can be properly 
applied to all of the peoples as a whole, and it is still widely used 
in anthropological and archaeological contexts. The broader term 
Native American is sometimes used to refer to Eskimo and Aleut 
peoples. See usage at Native American .


None of my friends (mostly whites in Alberta Canada) uses "Eskimo" as
an insult, nor thinks of it as an insult.  Those of us who know that
our Canadian northern native people call themselves "Inuit" will use
that term out of respect for their wishes, and we may correct someone
who uses the more general word, but not because we think of it as
pejorative, just no longer the most accurate term.

If some Canadian northern natives do react to it as a pejorative, that
usage hasn't reached here yet.

Some Albertans can be quite red-neck, and certainly some of them freely
use the G-word and the N-word as pejoratives; and they stress the I-word
as if they intend it as a pejorative; but they don't seem to have chosen
to use "Eskimo" as a pejorative.


Thorvald


At 2:05 PM -0800 12/30/10, wheezul at canby.com wrote:
>  I appreciate something being mentioned.  I had NO idea that the term might
>  remotely be considered pejorative.  Thank you.
>
>  Now, back to Ken Abala's Cooking In Europe 1250-1650.  I'm wondering if I
>  didn't see a roux based gravy-esque recipe in Wecker...
>
>  Katherine
>
>>
>>  I know  the ulu is used in greenland but can not say for Saami or
>>  Siberian/Russia.
>>
>>  My intention was never to start a flame war. But as someone from the
>>  arctic, with arctic heritage who didn't leave until recently ...... well I
>>  guess my references are different than yours.


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