Where does the name Eskimo come from?

Question

Eskimos are not Eskimos. At least, that is not how they call themselves... They call themselves Inuit (so I've heard).
Where does the name Eskimo come from then?

Answer 1

Eskimo
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This article is about the Eskimo people. For the album by The Residents, see Eskimo (album).
Eskimos, or Esquimaux, are terms used to refer to people who inhabit the circumpolar region (excluding Scandinavia and most of Russia, but including the easternmost portions of Siberia). There are two main groups of Eskimos: the Inuit (in northern Alaska, Canada and Greenland) and the Yupik (of western Alaska and the Russian Far East).

The Eskimos are related to the Aleuts and the Alutiiq from the Aleutian Islands in Alaska as well as the Sug'piak from the Kodiak Islands and as far as the Prince William Sound in southcentral Alaska.

Eastern Eskimo people - the Inuit - speak Inuktitut, and western Alaskan Eskimo communities - the Yup'ik - speak Yup'ik. There is something of a dialect continuum between the two, and the westernmost dialects of Inuktitut could be viewed as forms of Yup'ik. Kinship culture also differs between east and west, as eastern Inuit lived with cousins of both parents, but western Inuit lived in paternal kinship groups.

The term "eskimo" is now generally considered offensive, and they should normally be referred by their preferred names, Yupik orInuit.

Contents [hide]
1 Use and origin of the term
2 Historical description
3 See also
4 References
5 External links



[edit]
Use and origin of the term
The term "Eskimo" is an exonym that is not generally used by Eskimos themselves. The term "Inuit" is sometimes used instead, but it does not properly include the Yupik.

Some Algonquian languages call Eskimos by names that mean "eaters of raw meat" or something that sounds similar. The Plains Ojibwe, for example, use the word êškipot ("one who eats raw," from ašk-, "raw," and -po-, "to eat") to refer to Eskimos. But in the period of the earliest attested French use of the word, the Plains Ojibwe were not in contact with Europeans, nor did they have very much direct contact with the Inuit in pre-colonial times. It is entirely possible that the Ojibwe have adopted words resembling "Eskimo" by borrowing them from French, and the French word merely sounds like Ojibwe words that can be interpreted as "eaters of raw meat". Furthermore, since Cree people also traditionally consumed raw meat, a pejorative significance based on this etymology seems unlikely.

The Montagnais language, a dialect of Cree which was known to French traders at the time of the earliest attestation of esquimaux, does not have vocabulary fitting this etymological analysis. A variety of competing etymologies have been proposed over the years, but the most likely source is the Montagnais word meaning "snowshoe-netter". Since Montagnais speakers refer to the neighbouring Mi'kmaq people using words that sound very much like eskimo, many researchers have concluded that this is the more likely origin of the word. (Mailhot, J. L'étymologie de «Esquimau» revue et corrigée Etudes Inuit/Inuit Studies 2-2:59-70 1978; Goddard 1984 in Campbell 1997.)

The term "Eskimo" is still used in Alaska to refer to the state's Arctic peoples in general, whether or not they are Eskimos culturally or linguistically. For example, while some Yupik people prefer to be called "Yup'ik", they do not generally object to being called "Eskimo", but they do not consider themselves "Inuit". [1]

Among many non-Eskimos, the word "Eskimo" is falling out of use to refer to the Eskimo peoples in favor of the term "Inuit", which leads to much confusion as to the relationship between the Inuit and the Yup'ik. Much of the impetus behind this change probably traces to the books of Farley Mowat, particularly People of the Deer and The Desperate People. However, in Canada at least, a belief in the pejorative etymology of the word and the rejection of the term by the Inuit peoples were a major factor.

The term "Eskimos" is now used by some to refer to rugged and brave individuals who are able to deal with cold and ice even if they are not natives of the far North. For example, the Cambridge Eskimos, established in the 1930s and still active, are an ice hockey team based at the University of Cambridge in Britain, as well as the Abitibi Eskimos hockey team, based out of Iroquois Falls, Ontario, Canada. In somewhat the same vein, the Canadian Football League's Edmonton team is called the Eskimos.

[edit]
Historical description
The anthropologist Thomas Huxley in On the Methods and Results of Ethnology (1865) defined the "Esquimaux race" to be the indigenous peoples in the Arctic region of northern Canada and Alaska. He described them to "certainly present a new stock" (different from the other indigenous peoples of North America). He described them to have straight black hair, dull skin complexion, short and squat, with high cheek bones and long skulls.

Answer 2

Eskimo Brothers Origin

Answer 3

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
Where does the name Eskimo come from?
Eskimos are not Eskimos. At least, that is not how they call themselves... They call themselves Inuit (so I've heard).
Where does the name Eskimo come from then?

Answer 4

LibraryLover is correct...except that in the case of this tribe, the origins of the word "Eskimo" are still in dispute.

"Goddard writes: "In the 1970s in Canada the name Inuit all but
replaced Eskimo in...the mass media, largely in response to demands from Eskimo political associations. The erroneous belief that Eskimo was a pejorative term meaning 'eater of raw flesh' had a major influence on this
shift..."

What this author is driving at is the fact that some say the original meaning of "Eskimo" is "snowshow-netter."

Eskimos' self-designations include:

singular plural language places

Inuk Inuit Inuktitut Canada, West Greenland
Inupiaq Inupiat Inupiaq North Alaska
Inuvialuk Inuvialuit Mackenzie Delta
Katladlit Kalaallisut Greenland
Yupik Yupik Southwest Alaska
Yuk Yuit Siberia, St. Lawrence Island

"Inuk" and "Yuk" mean simply "person";
"Inupiaq" and "Inuvialuk" mean "real, genuine person".

Answer 5

Eskimos, or Esquimaux, are terms used to refer to people who inhabit the circumpolar region (excluding Scandinavia and most of Russia, but including the easternmost portions of Siberia). There are two main groups of Eskimos: the Inuit (in northern Alaska, Canada and Greenland) and the Yupik (of western Alaska and the Russian Far East).

Answer 6

The name "Eskimo" is actually a name given to the Inuit people of the Northern Territories of Cananda. Eskimo translates to "meat eater" which is not very flattering to the Inuit peope. It can be eqauted to the same terrible name(s) African American's are given, or Mexians, Hispanics, etc. So if you want to insult an Inuit, call him an Eskimo.

Answer 7

Inuk eeenook. Meaning: Eskimo.

Answer 8

The original term 'Eskimo' comes from an old world in a language I can't remember meaning "eater of raw flesh".

Answer 9

It is an insulting term...As for where it came from, it probably came from another Native tribe.

Many of the names outsiders call Native peoples actually mean things like "enemy," because French traders would pass through a territory, do business with one tribe, and say, "Hey, who are those people who live past those mountains," and people would say, "Oh, them? They are 'the enemy'" (or "meat eaters," or "devils," or "barbarians").

These days, many native peoples are trying to re-claim their original tribal names (which often mean something like "the people") and their original tribal languages, or at least re-name themselves with less offensive names.

One example, are the people many know as the Anasazi, who now prefer to be called the "Ancestral Pueblo People,"

Answer 10

It's an Indian name. Feathers not dots.