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I always found it surprising that the US calls regions where people live the same as regions where protected animals live (reservations). Isn't that offending t

• kodablah 9y ago
  Equally deeply offended that your saved area at a restaurant is also named after where protected animals live? While it doesn't apply to me, I would not be deeply offended, but I also don't try to find reasons to be offended.
• protomyth 9y ago
  Well, reservation is actually what the US Military called their military outposts. So, its a pretty unoffensive term and I have never heard anyone on the reservation call it such. Although the current term that seems to be going around is "Nation". I would guess either from the first nations in Canada or the Navajo. Heck, the phrase "off the reservation" is often used in spy movies. Speaking of Canada. They call their's "reserves" which almost got me into a fight in Canada when someone asked the Dakota I was traveling with "what reserve are you from?". He took it, uhm, poorly. It took some fast talking to calm him down. He did not come away with a good impression of Canada although winning at the track later in the day put a positive note on our travels.
• thecardcheat 9y ago
  Beyond the obvious etymology that others have stated, the terms "sanctuary", "refuge", and "preserve" are used far more by the US to represent the idea you describe for animals, so the equivalence in terminology doesn't seem well founded at all.
• aaron-lebo 9y ago
  They're both derived from "reserve", which is just saying that this land is reserved for these people.
  • grzm 9y ago
    I find etymology fascinating and really enjoy noticing and reflecting on cognates. That said, the actual uses of the words in their current context and their connotations is more important for communication and understanding what people mean and intend to convey.
    • aaron-lebo 9y ago
      It's not offensive, though, unless you are trying to be offended. The reservation system is a broken acknowledgement that the US stole land from all of those tribal groups, but the purpose of a reservation is to set land aside, to reserve it for those tribal groups, to say the government cannot go any further. There's much better things to be offended by. Nobody is offended by hotel reservations.
      • grzm 9y ago
        That's a much better and more respectful explanation I think of your position than calling someone's opinion silly or goofy. I'd have a hard time unpacking your second comment from your first. Particularly on difficult topics, if you think someone's giving something too little thought, err on the side of giving it more thought rather than something shorter. I sympathize with a desire to be concise and pithy, but it can so easily be read in more ways other than it's intended. There's just less info there: fewer error correction bits, so to speak.
• astura 9y ago
  Don't ever watch a baseball game then, relief pitchers are kept in a bullpen.
• jakeogh 9y ago
  Tangentially... The title could just as easily be "A Map of American Tribes".