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In fact, the vast majority of populations had a word for
themselves which traditional Western anthropologists have conceptually
translated as "the people," and a word for everybody else which, in translation,
is always derogatory. But then, an anthropologist from Mars might well
translate our seemingly neutral "us"/"them" dichotomy in much the same
way.
It's another case of "We, the People," versus "those
gooks" (or savages, &c). In sum, I would not be quick to
assume that "we" means "human" and "they" means something sub-human,
although I will grant that ethnocentrism, which is not uncommon in
various times and places, closely conforms to the syllogism you have
presented.
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