Help Us End the R-Word

[Moonliner]

Originally Posted by 3894

This isn't true. The story was started by the anthropologist Franz Boaz who noted that the Central Esquimaux. He noted there were different words for different kinds of snow. Somehow, this whole thing grew many years later - in the early 1970's. The number kept spiraling up, sort of like the Chief Seattle story that was invented by a newspaper editor in Texas. Anyway, it's [strike]gay[/strike], [strike]retarded[/strike] campy to repeat this thing about snow. Euro-Americans have only one word for snow but Esquimos have many different words for different kinds of snow perpetuates a stereotype about Native Americans being more in tune with their surroundings than the rest of us.

This isn't true. That story was stared by evangelical missionaries who upon visiting the particular Eskimo culture studied by Dr. Boaz determined that the word "snow" did in fact translate into English as "sex" and further that there we considerably more than 24 variations on the word in common use (espically during the winter months).