FW: BBC "Dictionary of Man" project

[Kephart, Ronald]

Folks,

I discovered this morning that the BBC is planning a massive ³Dictionary of
Man² web project. Being a professional meddler, I found a couple of contact
emails and sent them this. I¹ll keep y¹all posted on any responses...

------ Forwarded Message From: Ronald Kephart <rkephart at unf.edu> Date: Thu,
19 Apr 2007 08:30:41 -0400 To: <jennie.allen.01 at bbc.co.uk>,
<caren.davies at bbc.co.uk> Conversation: BBC "Dictionary of Man" project
Subject: BBC "Dictionary of Man" project

Hi Folks,

I am a US anthropologist. I just this morning saw the announcement for your
project titled "Dictionary of Man" and I have one major suggestion at the
outset:

Can you PLEASE rename this thing "Dictionary of Humankind" instead.? We
know, for a fact, that "man" is not a (psycholinguistically) true generic
term for Homo sapiens. It was promoted as generic by British prescriptive
grammarians in the 17th-18th centuries to further their ideology that women
should, by virtue of their own intrinsic nature, be subordinated to males.

³Dictionary of Man² sounds so 19th-century; it¹s something these folks would
have approved of. Can you please help deprive them of this posthumous
satisfaction?

Thanks.

Ron

-- 
Ronald Kephart
Associate Professor of Anthropology
University of North Florida
(904) 620-1659


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