The Issues Related to the Translation of Social Science Essays About Native Peoples in Québec
This article deals with the issues that were raised during the translation of Toby Morantz’ text about the James Bay Crees, published in 2002 by McGill-Queen’s University Press. The challenges met during the exercise of translating this text raised broader issues related to the translation and publication of anthropological works about Native Peoples in Québec. First, this article will identify some contextual elements, notably surrounding the editorial world that could help explain the very low number of translated works about First Nations, highlighting the symbolic capital attributed to the various stakeholders involved in these kinds of publications and to the subject of study. This article will then discuss the issues related to the actual translation of an anthropological text in this postcolonial era. Is it possible and desirable, in the current editorial context in Québec, for Eurocanadian anthropologists, like the author of this article, to take part in the « decolonization » of history through the translation of ethnohistoric texts?