Unusual (first) names

[Baker, John]

        Chagnon himself tells the story in his book; you can read the
relevant pages on Amazon.com (a search for "cunt" should bring them up).
He did not initially speak the language well enough to know the meanings
of the names.  Trying to show off, he casually mentioned his
acquaintance with Hairy Cunt to the headman of another tribe.


John Baker



-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Joel S. Berson
Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2008 2:59 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Unusual (first) names

Did I read somewhere that these names were given Chagnon because he
didn't know what they meant (at least initially?) and they would make
him an object of humor or ridicule?  Or is that story associated with
some other anthropologist and his aborigines?  Or is it a rural
folktale?

(Intriguingly, Google gives only 7 hits for Yamamamo + Chagnon, and
Google Books 0; the book itself apparently exists in many editions,
including a 1992 edition, ' "...a substantially revised adaptation of
the fourth college edition..."--T.p. verso.')

Joel

At 8/27/2008 01:19 PM, Baker, John wrote:
>         Napoleon Chagnon, in Yanomamo:  The Last Days of Eden, tells
>of how the Yanomamo gave him scandalous fake names, such as "Hairy
Cunt"
>and "Eagle Shit," because a name taboo made them reluctant to give real

>names.  Maybe something similar was going on here.
>
>
>John Baker

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