Saturday, March 24, 2018

So much for barbecue

Apparently there is a move afoot to call the new National Hockey League team in Seattle the Totems.

Seattle Totems.  Has a nice ring.  I don't really care, I'm a Canucks fan, to the extent that I follow professional sports anymore, having grown up in Vancouver (back when it was a nice place to grow up) and living closer to Vancouver than I do to Seattle.

However, there has been the predictable outrage over "cultural appropriation" of the word totem.  Never mind that it comes from an Ojibwa word and has been in use in the English language for about 250 years, so no connection whatsoever with the local tribes.  Never mind that for about 250 years it has been used to mean something that is an emblem or revered symbol (like a professional sports team, for example?).

Never mind that language constantly adopts words from other cultures.  English itself is an amazing mix of Latin, Greek, Scandinavian, Saxon, German, Dutch, Norman, French, Spanish, and yes, Ojibwa.  Assuming that the local tribes actually use the word totem, could they have appropriated it from the Ojibwa also, or did they adopt it from English speaking Americans?

Never mind that there are few to no speakers of any language that haven't adopted words, including American indians.

What upsets me the most is that I can no longer barbecue during the summer.  That's because the word barbecue apparently comes from the Tarawak language native to the Taino indians, Caribbean islanders at the time of the Spanish settlement (or conquering, whichever you prefer).  I wouldn't want to be insensitive.  From now on I will just smoke my food in a smoker and hope that smoker doesn't come from some culture that will get upset about my word choice.

1 comment:

NotClauswitz said...

It's also an adjective used to describe objects and other things of significance - totemic - including concepts and behaviors. How anyone can object to its use and inclusion in English language scholarship is mystifying and ridiculous.