Re: Redskin
Posted by ESC on April 02, 2002 In Reply to: Re: Redskin posted by R.
Berg on April 02, 2002
: : I think it is the political correct answer, did you notice
"genocidal practice". If you look up scalping, you will see several
sites trying to make the argument it was Europe that originated
the practice and the tribes just innocently got caught up into the
action. Here is a good site that dispels that, http://thecowshed.tripod.com/native/cutting.htm
"Finally, the words that are used to describe "scalp" and "scalping"
had no set vocabulary and no universal translation in European languages,
but Indians of different backgrounds and languages had nouns and
verbs to refer to the specific use of the terminology."
: : I can't help but think red=blood and because it is a negative
English word for American Indians, I think it might have something
to do with Indians taking scalps, because it would be a bloody mess,
leaving them with redskinds.
: But did you come to this forum to get information about the origin
of "redskin" or to promote a hypothesis about it? The reference
books that the regulars here rely on say the word came from a supposed
reddish hue to Indians' skin. They say nothing about blood or scalping.
The origin of a word isn't established just by finding that one
or another idea is intuitively appealing. You need historical support,
too; and we presume that the compilers of the reference books have
researched the phrases they explain. As an example, look at "the
Whole nine yards" as tossed around in the archives on this site.
Many people have "decided" what the "true" origin of that phrase
is--but they have proposed DIFFERENT origins.
RED INDIAN - "An offensive name for Native Americans, but a historical
term applied by the British to North American Indians, apparently
because of 'their copper-colored skin' and to distinguish them semantically
from the Indians of India. From 'Red Indian' came the derogatory
word redskin." From "Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins" by
Robert Hendrickson (Facts on File, New York, 1997).
"redskin, 1699; red man, 1725; red devil, 1834." From "I Hear America
Talking" by Stuart Berg Flexner (Von Nostrand Reinhold Co., New
York, 1976).
Hey! Let's blame the British for the term.
BTW. When my children were small, they noticed hair color over
skin color. Their grandmother was a short (5 ft.), plump white lady.
A family friend was a tall (6 ft.), slender black woman. My kids
told her, "You look like Grandma." Both women had gray hair.
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