war feathered

English translation: wear feathers

20:46 Jan 27, 2006

English language (monolingual) [PRO]
Social Sciences - Education / Pedagogy

English term or phrase: war feathered

I'm a bit stumped on this sentence as I'm not sure whether the syntax is correct, and the client is out of reach. Is "war" used as a verb here, and "feathered" as an adjective? (i.e., does this translate as "Waged war decked in feathers"?). Could this be a typo for "were feathered"? (this kind of error is frequent with this particular client).

Context is important, as this is a list of stereotypical images that the document is aiming to dispel. The sentence needs to amount to a stereotype that is not true, alas I plead ignorance as to whether Native Americans did indeed wear their feathers while engaged in battle, beyond what Hollywood will have us believe...

Many thanks for any and all input :)

In three-, four-, and five-year-old children have already absorbed stereotypical ideas-that dark-skinned people are robbers, ***that Native people war feathered***, that fat people are inappropriate as friends, that girls can’t jump as high as boys-think of how many other stereotypes and biases we have absorbed in the course of twenty, thirty, forty, or more years of uninterrupted or relatively unchallenged messages from popular culture, advertising, news commentary and visual images, and comments of colleagues, friends, and relatives.

Susana Galilea KudoZ activity Questions: 213 (none open) (1 without valid answers) (10 closed without grading) Answers: 4263 United States
Local time: 17:05

Selected answer:wear feathers

Explanation:
Double typo?

i.e. the mistaken stereotype that Native Indians still dress like the Indians in westerns.

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Note added at 14 mins (2006-01-27 21:00:33 GMT)
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after all, these are stereotypes that are absorbed by "three, four and five year olds", so it can't be anything too complicated.

Selected response from:

Mark Nathan
France
Local time: 00:05

Grading comment

The client finally replied to my queries, and this was the correct interpretation. Thanks everyone for all the excellent input.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED

3 +6

wore feathers - trugen Federn

Brie Vernier

2 +6

wear feathers

Mark Nathan

"war-painted" is better expression

humbird

not clear

Yvette Neisser Moreno

wore feathered war bonnets

Kurt Porter

idiot,emptyheaded who have nothig to think of but war

ahmed elmenoufy

idiot,emptyheaded guys who think of nothing but war for the sake of war and not for something valua

ahmed elmenoufy

2 +1

were feathered

William [Bill] Gray

Discussion entries: 2

Answers

9 mins confidence:

not clear

Explanation:
There's definitely an error here. While I do think it was common for Native American warriors to wear feathers or other types of headdresses during battle, I also think feathered headdresses were worn (and maybe still are) by chiefs for other occasions as well. So, there could be more than one possible intended stereotype here. If you're client is unavailable to clarify, I think your first interpretation "Waged war decked in feathers" is a good guess.

Yvette Neisser Moreno
United States
Local time: 18:05
Works in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 4

Notes to answerer

Asker: Thanks for your input, Yvette :)

7 mins confidence:

wore feathered war bonnets

Explanation:
"war feathered" is an incorrect way to say the next sentence. Link attached:

"For example, probably no stereotype is more pervasive than that of the feathered war bonnet.

"The image of a mounted warrior wearing a flowing eagle-feather headdress is the first thing that pops into many people's minds when they hear the words 'Native American'," said Ray Gonyea (Onondaga), curator of Native American art and culture at the Eiteljorg Museum. "Historically, Native Americans all wore distinctively different styles of headdress, clothing and decoration to differentiate themselves from their enemies before they got too close."

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Note added at 9 mins (2006-01-27 20:56:07 GMT)
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Or could be "wore feathered bonnets."

Reference: http://www.bbhc.org/exhibitions/powerfulImages.cfm

Kurt Porter
Local time: 03:05
Works in field
Native speaker of: English

Notes to answerer

Asker: Thanks for your input, Kurt :)

11 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +6

wear feathers

Mark Nathan
France
Local time: 00:05
Works in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 16

Grading comment

The client finally replied to my queries, and this was the correct interpretation. Thanks everyone for all the excellent input.

Notes to answerer

Asker: Disagrees notwithstanding, I believe you're right on target in this particular context

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)

agree

Brie Vernier

7 mins

agree

RHELLER: or wore feathers

1 hr

agree

Refugio: and I think we have to prefer "wear" to "wore" for the sense of it

1 hr

agree

Alexander Demyanov

2 hrs

agree

Ken Cox: fits the sense and the context -- present tense to match the rest (otherwise I'd agree with Brie). Kurt's remarks are also appropriate - there was a wide variety of dress and ornament, and Hollywood has created a fundamentally false image.

2 hrs

disagree

humbird: Wrong. Feathers are not the matter of the past. Native Americans still wear feathers in Pow Wow, among other occassions today. Wearing them is still a source of pride for them. Besides important factor here is not grammartical mistake alone.

3 hrs

-> No one is suggesting that wearing feathers has totally disappeared.

agree

tazdog (X): I think so, too.

10 hrs

agree

awilliams: "wear feathers" or "wore feathers".

14 hrs

3 hrs confidence:

"war-painted" is better expression

Explanation:
First, the source of your confusion is not typo, but poor understanding of the subject matter this author is dealing with. I believe the author's intention is using "war featherd" as hyphnated adjective, but even that as some of answerers pointed out this usage is wrong in both syntax and sematics.
The usage is also culturally wrong (and author's comprehension of the issue at hand is terribly skimpy). Yes traditionally the Native Americans throughout all tribes wore feathers in almost every occassions, let it be in peace or in war.
However, in this sentence the intention of the author is that Indians were considered war-like, ruthless combatants, a stereotype that have been promoted and perpetuated among non-Indians through Hollywood movies and other popular media.
As for the feathered-bonnet worn by one of them, see the picture in following link.

http://www.edwardscurtis.com/cgi-bin/user/kirkrudy/gallery/g...

This kind of feathered bonnet was worn in both war and peaceful ceremonies. In the same token, body paints were also worn on both occassions. But throughout the history (of American West, namely the conquest of the Native Americans by European powers), painted Indians provoked more fear among the encroaching "White Peoples" in Western Frontier for its assumed "war-likeness". It is for this reason I say that if I were the author I would use "war-painted" as more appropriate.
In any event, if you want to make any sense out of the poor original writing about which us translators do not have much control, only remedy is to consider it as "war-feathered" instead. Again, in order to fill the gap of this still senseless substitute, you should take above-mentioned cultural context into consideration.
One last thing, your one of the assumption of "war" a typo of "were" is totally unnecessary because it is not.

humbird
Native speaker of:

Japanese,

English

Notes to answerer

Asker: Thanks, Susan - While I appreciate your input tremendously, it seems a bit harsh to slap disagrees on perfectly valid answers, when everyone agrees the source document is open to myriad interpretations

15 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +6

wore feathers - trugen Federn

Explanation:
Looks to me like a transcription typo - "wore" sounds like "war" and it can be difficult to distinguish a voice-recorded "-ed" from "-s", especially (but not only) for non-native speakers.

Perhaps the point is that not ALL native Americans wore feathers, but this is just a guess.

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Note added at 18 mins (2006-01-27 21:04:22 GMT)
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Ahh, having just seen Mark's answer, I think it is, indeed, a double typo, as all the other stereotypes are in the present tense.

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Note added at 32 mins (2006-01-27 21:18:54 GMT)
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Oops, sorry about the German bit ...

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Note added at 4 hrs (2006-01-28 00:46:43 GMT)
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I really believe the whole "war" idea is completely out of place here, and that the issue of feathers, whether they *were* worn or *are* worn, is not meant to be restricted to a battle/war scenario, even though they clearly *were*, at one time, worn then. I fear that the very nature of the typo has put people on the wrong track.

Brie Vernier
Germany
Local time: 00:05
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 12

Notes to answerer

Asker: No problem, Brie, a bit of German is actually a relief as compared to this puzzling sentence :)

Asker: And I fully agree with your last note

2 days 51 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

were feathered

Explanation:
Yet another suggestion in a field where we may guess at will, I imagine!
"were feathered" as in being like other species which have feathers. After all, they are talking about grossly improper stereotypical images of other people. Some unscrupulour persons used to hunt Australian Aborigines like animals because they sheltered from the heat in holes in the ground.

William [Bill] Gray
Norway
Local time: 00:05
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 12

2 days 2 hrs confidence:

idiot,emptyheaded who have nothig to think of but war

Explanation:
Susana, i thik war feathered mean idioit ,empty headed guys who have nothing to think of but idiot wars for only the sake of war ,and not for any thing valuable such as defeding ,for inistance,their freedom,land or dignity

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Note added at 2 days2 hrs (2006-01-29 23:08:19 GMT)
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A lot of thaks for every one

ahmed elmenoufy
Local time: 00:05
Works in field
Native speaker of:

Arabic

2 days 2 hrs confidence:

idiot,emptyheaded guys who think of nothing but war for the sake of war and not for something valua

Explanation:
Susana, i thik war feathered mean idioit ,empty headed guys who have nothing to think of but idiot wars for only the sake of war ,and not for any thing valuable such as defeding ,for enistance,their freedom,land or dignity

ahmed elmenoufy
Local time: 00:05
Works in field
Native speaker of:

Arabic

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