Beyond Everyone's Horizon Stand the Naskapi

Bibliographic Data

ID2738210
AuthorsJosé Mailhot (corresponding author)
Year1986
Volume33
Issue4
Pages384
Publication date1986-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueEthnohistory (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0014-1801 • E-ISSN: 1527-5477
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/482040
OpenAlexW1971762919
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited3

The uncritical acceptance of native North American ethnonyms can lead erroneous interpretations of historical documents. Such has been the case for certain aboriginal groups of the Quebec-Labrador Peninsula. Confusion still exists today concerning the identity of those who have been called Naskapi since the seventeenth century. It will be shown that the referent of the term varies greatly, both in anthropological literature as well as in archival documents. Having retraced its origin and evolution and analyzed its semantic relationship the term Montagnais, the author concludes that, from the start of the nineteenth century, Naskapi has been used impart the speaker's notion of primitive Indians. Those who seek retrace the history of North American native peoples on the strength of archival documents will eventually find themselves faced with the delicate problem of the names ascribed the various groups. Here indeed is a complicated subject-one which must be itself analyzed and interpreted with care.1 One need only look at the attention this topic receives in the recent edition of the Handbook of North American Indians: each chapter contains a section entitled Synonymy, generally written by a linguist, in which the different terms applied a particular group in written documents are listed and commented. Putting some order in native North American ethnonyms is certainly no easy task. Goddard (1984) discussed some of the difficulties he encountered as linguistic editor of the Handbook-problems dealing with the form of terms, their meaning, significance, and reference. He concluded that in order understand these ethnonyms, it is necessary master completely these aspects and to examine not only their etymologies but also how they are used in the functioning culture of their origin or in the culture of the contact situation (Goddard 1984: io6). The topic with which Goddard dealt in less detail is that of reference. The Ethnohistory 33:4 (Fall I986). Copyright ?by the American Society for Ethnohistory. ccC ooI4-I80o/86/$I.5o. This content downloaded from 207.46.13.13 on Thu, 25 Aug 2016 05:55:00 UTC All use subject http://about.jstor.org/terms

Genealogy · Geometry · Horizon · Canadian Identity and History · History · Indigenous Studies and Ecology · Mathematics

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