Re: Word of the day: ?Papoose?

On Sun, 01 Sep 2024 23:04:55 -0400, Rich Ulrich
<rich.ulrich@comcast.net> wrote:

On Sun, 01 Sep 2024 15:39:20 -0400, Tony Cooper
<tonycooper214@gmail.com> wrote:
>

On Sun, 01 Sep 2024 18:36:10 +0200, Steve Hayes
<hayesstw@telkomsa.net> wrote:
>

On Sat, 31 Aug 2024 22:17:55 +0100, Janet <nobody@home.com> wrote:
>

Cradle boards and other child carriers used by Native Americans are known by
various names. In Algonquin history, the term papoose is sometimes used to
refer to a child carrier.?
 
Given I am 43 and fairly well-read I can assert that it has basically no
currency outside the US.

>
  The native-American "papoose" back-board child carrier
was known to me in early childhood (and probably every
other kid enthralled by "Cowboys and Indians".
>
   When we had children I rediscovered it all over again
thanks to Mothercare. We had a baby back carrier called a
papoose.

>
So it seems that people within the US understand "papoose" as
referring to a child, and outside the US it refers to a child holder?

>
>
Please...write "some people".
>
If I see an (American) Indian with a baby in a carrier strapped to her
back, I would describe that as a woman with a papoose.
>
However, if she removes the baby from the carrier and puts the baby on
a blanket on the ground, I would not say the baby is a "papoose".

>
I thought that the baby would stay in the carrier when laid on
the ground.  I thought they followed the baby-handling tradition
of keeping them bound up. 
>
I had not ever been challenged with an Indian baby on the
loose, and someone looking for a word to describe them.
>
From the earlier discussion, I conclude that only the bound
baby is a papoose.

I don't have a lot of experience discussing (American) Indian
children, so I - too - have never before been challenged with coming
up with a word to describe an unbound one. 

It would have been my impression that an Indian woman uses/used the
papoose-on-the-back as a means of comfortably transporting the child
when she's on the move.  It's never occured to me that keeping the
child bound at all times is/was the objective.