calumet de paix

[Koontz John E]

On Fri, 27 Feb 2004, Michael Mccafferty wrote:
> Does anyone know if a morpheme for "peace" occurs in any Siouan language's
> term for "pipe"? I'm trying to determine the origin of "paix" (peace) in
> the French expression "calumet de paix" (peace pipe).

The concept of "peace," itself is perhaps somewhat difficult.  I remember
looking for this fairly recently.  This is a complex collection of
associated ideas, the details of which seem to me to depend on a "Western"
and Christian context.  The cultural dependence is perhaps not as obvious
or absolute as something like 'junk mail' and to some extent my
difficulties may stem from awkward or literal translations.  The 'peace'
forms I tracked down in Omaha-Ponca seemed to refer to mental peace, or
calm, and although this might certainly be connected with not fearing an
attack that didn't seem to be the emphasis.  Peace in the sense of an
absence of declared war or an agreement not to fight, among other things,
seems harder to find a term for.

I'm not sure there's a countervailing term for 'war' either, though there
is certainly the term nudaN rendered 'go on the warpath' (itself a
formulation growing out of early French and English interactions with East
Coast groups), i.e., 'to conduct a military expedition', which is rendered
'war' in translated compounds like 'war chief' (or 'war leader').  There
are also, I think, some terms often rendered 'to hate each other' ('be in
a state of war?') that might be relevant.

On the other hand, I believe I have seen references to agreements not to
fight being concluded.