Yanomamo names

[Joel S. Berson]

So my memory was correct?  After all, even if there is "a name taboo
[that] made them reluctant to give real names", false names could
have been given that were not scurrilous?  (The names were not
applied to Chagnon, as I understand it, but rather they were names
invented by the Yanomamo for Yanomamo individuals, to hide their real names.)

At 8/27/2008 07:19 PM, Baker, John wrote:
>         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).

And my dinner as well?  :-)

Joel

>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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