Quote:
Originally Posted by 10023
Nonsense.
Not only did they not have the common language, breadth of economic linkages, etc or civil society that this requires, but they didn’t have the concept. Nationhood is an invented societal construct, which became popular in the 18th and probably dates no earlier than the 16th century. The people of Elizabethan England considered themselves a nation; the citizens of Charlemagne’s empire, Rome or Athens did not.
To call the early peoples of North America “nations” is to further impose European norms and structure on a non-European culture and society. I understand that modern tribal leaders in Canada might have embraced it, but that only shows that they don’t understand the term or know history.
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How very European of you. Europeans are very rigid about terms and ideas and why I find Europe suffocating at times. I'd argue that you have this all backwards. You're imposing European ideas about nationhood on these aboriginal people. These tribes had their own languages, customs, traditions, and ancestral lands. They were and are nations within a nation and the First Nations people of Canada. This is what they wish to be called and that's precisely what we call them.
Imo, the term 'Native American' is far too abstract and homogenous. If that's what they want to be called in the US, so be it. In Canada, they do not. And btw, not all aboriginals in Canada are described as First Nations. We also have Metis and Inuit.
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