Quote:
Originally Posted by The Colonel
I'm told that a great many primitive cultures tend to have an endonym which, on translation simply means "people" and refer to all of the rest of humanity as "not people" (although polite translators sometimes parse this as "other people"). Sort of like a cultural equivalent of that theory of mind deficiency that makes toddlers hide by covering their eyes.
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I'm not sure how good a translation it is as primitive cultures conduct diplomacy, and have duels, tourneys, or athletic events with one another. They also have trade fairs and marriage negotiations. If they really didn't regard each other as people they would not do the things, well, people, do with them. Just to start cannibalism would be more common.
In real life people who want other people to be "not people" want it both ways. Slaveowners for instance do things like wanting slave concubines and wanting to count their slaves to their population when getting legislative representation.
In any case the only way we could know that the word they use means "people" the way it does in English is for them to literally treat unpeople as unpeople (lower animals, vegetables, or minerals). Probably "Us" is a better translation and "People" a red herring. After all there are plenty of people whom we would regard as civilized however that term is defined that regard those outside of "Us" as being outside ethical consideration but ultimately regard them as people however paradoxically (Hatfields do not regard McCoys as Unpeople, they regard them as People They Don't Like).
For a similar dynamic in a game you would have to use not the difference between PCs and NPCs but that between a Nemesis and a Minion.