Nice use of metaphor! I like it. There are hints of Eric Hoffer and perhaps HL Mencken, though their darker views would suggest how easily a good gumbo might end up a witches brew depending upon who’s stirring the pot. 😆
Here in New Mexico, it isn't uncommon for people to claim fifth-gen or more heritage, usually of an Indian (many of my students preferred that term over "Native American") tribe or pueblo. Still, your point is well taken. On one side of my family, the immigrants are just three generations back; on the other, it seems most were here before the United States was formed.
Hi Jackie, thanks for sharing your thoughts! As my favorite historian, David Hackett Fischer, likes to say: it's a phenomenon of "high complexity". American Indians (and, yes, I understand that this name is often preferred) might be something of a special case because exogamy has more significance in a tribal culture. For most of us American mongrels, intermarriage has been a way of life for hundreds of years. Indeed, the very concept of "inter" marriage assumes a relatively strong group identity; however, as noted, group identity has weakened because of ethnic attrition. Even people who identify with a particular group likely have rather mixed ancestry - I have seen citations that on average Mexican-Americans have 40% European ancestry and even African-Americans have 20% or more. For myself, cousins on the French-Canadian side of my family have discovered that our ancestry might be heavily Scottish, and my Dutch mother has a German maiden name. In the end, of course, we're all cousins if you go far enough back!
Thank you for that explanation, Peter. I was curious about it, but knew enough from some of the students I got to know more personally that some topics are not to be discussed with outsiders (and some not at all in certain tribes), and I didn't want to blunder in to one.
My kids' father is half Mexican. That side of the family liked to emphasize their European ancestry; nothing overt was said within my hearing and in English, but the feeling I got was they felt slightly superior because of it.
"A phenomenon of high complexity" does have a nice ring to it; thanks for that too.
We might be cousins not that far back via our Dutch and German heritage.
Nice use of metaphor! I like it. There are hints of Eric Hoffer and perhaps HL Mencken, though their darker views would suggest how easily a good gumbo might end up a witches brew depending upon who’s stirring the pot. 😆
You make a good point about the pot-stirrers. We might also have too many cooks in the kitchen!
Here in New Mexico, it isn't uncommon for people to claim fifth-gen or more heritage, usually of an Indian (many of my students preferred that term over "Native American") tribe or pueblo. Still, your point is well taken. On one side of my family, the immigrants are just three generations back; on the other, it seems most were here before the United States was formed.
Hi Jackie, thanks for sharing your thoughts! As my favorite historian, David Hackett Fischer, likes to say: it's a phenomenon of "high complexity". American Indians (and, yes, I understand that this name is often preferred) might be something of a special case because exogamy has more significance in a tribal culture. For most of us American mongrels, intermarriage has been a way of life for hundreds of years. Indeed, the very concept of "inter" marriage assumes a relatively strong group identity; however, as noted, group identity has weakened because of ethnic attrition. Even people who identify with a particular group likely have rather mixed ancestry - I have seen citations that on average Mexican-Americans have 40% European ancestry and even African-Americans have 20% or more. For myself, cousins on the French-Canadian side of my family have discovered that our ancestry might be heavily Scottish, and my Dutch mother has a German maiden name. In the end, of course, we're all cousins if you go far enough back!
Thank you for that explanation, Peter. I was curious about it, but knew enough from some of the students I got to know more personally that some topics are not to be discussed with outsiders (and some not at all in certain tribes), and I didn't want to blunder in to one.
My kids' father is half Mexican. That side of the family liked to emphasize their European ancestry; nothing overt was said within my hearing and in English, but the feeling I got was they felt slightly superior because of it.
"A phenomenon of high complexity" does have a nice ring to it; thanks for that too.
We might be cousins not that far back via our Dutch and German heritage.