malinche II

[Craig Berry]

On Sat, 5 Feb 2000, Michael Mccafferty wrote:

> You will have to convince most of the indigeneous people of North America.
> Good luck.

And note that almost no cultural group ends up named by others using the
word they would prefer.  The Picts of Britain were naimed by the Roman
occupying forces for their habit of decorating their bodies with paint.
The Celts were named after one small southeastern branch of a wide and
disparate group of cultures stretching across Europe.  Even modern Germans
(Deutsch to themselves) are known in each region of Europe based on which
pre-national tribal group happened to be nearest.  To further confuse
matters, there was no Amerindian term for Amerindian, as (a) they didn't
know about non-Amerindian humans, and (b) they didn't see themselves as a
monolithic culture (as they decidedly were not).  So, what are we to call
them?  Even "Native American" or "Amerindian" incorporates our old
European friend Amerigo Vespucci, after all.

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