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<font size=3>Thanks, John. The Yanomamo is what I was
remembering.<br><br>
Joel<br><br>
At 1/9/2010 11:29 PM, Baker, John wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">I summarized the story at
<a href="http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0605C&L=ADS-L&P=R2004" eudora="autourl">
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0605C&L=ADS-L&P=R2004</a>
<br>
<br>
<br>
There is a more verifiable
account of this type in Napoleon<br>
Chagnon's book Yanomamo - The Last Days of Eden, pp. 24 - 25, where
he<br>
discusses his collection of genealogical information, which in fact<br>
amounted to an invasion of the Yanomamo system of prestige and<br>
etiquette, if not a flagrant violation of it. The Yanomamo for a
period<br>
of five months maintained a systematic sabotage of his project.
The<br>
denouement:<br><br>
<<My anthropological
bubble burst when, some five months after I<br>
had begun collecting the genealogies, I visited a village about ten<br>
hours' walk to the southwest of Bisaasi-teri. In talking with
the<br>
headman of this village, I casually dropped the name of the wife of
the<br>
Bisaasi-teri headman, to show off a bit and demonstrate my growing<br>
command of the language and of who was who. A stunned silence
followed,<br>
and then a villagewide roar of uncontrollable laughter, choking,<br>
gasping, and howling. It seems that I thought the Bisaasi-teri
headman<br>
was married to a woman named "hairy cunt." It also came
out that I was<br>
calling the headman "long dong," his brother "eagle
shit," one of his<br>
sons "asshole," and a daughter "fart
breath.">><br>
<br>
<br>
John Baker<br>
<br><br>
________________________________<br><br>
From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Joel S. Berson<br>
Sent: Mon 1/4/2010 11:07 AM<br>
To: ADS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU<br>
Subject: Re: Kryponite and garlic<br><br>
<br><br>
At 1/4/2010 10:28 AM, Charles Doyle wrote:<br>
>I.e., the four sounds that elephants make to signify (with
various<br>
>shades of meaning), "Humans are listening!"<br><br>
Charlie, remind me of the ur-story of the anthropologist who visited<br>
a primitive tribe, asked what various things were called, published,<br>
and it was later discovered that ... they were being<br>
obscene? calling him derogatory names?<br><br>
Joel<br><br>
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