5:31 p.m.
It also doesn’t map exactly onto ethnicity as well depending on the area which is
interesting- for example, Egyptians would not consider themselves from Africa I think.
Also- the United Kingdom has always considered itself separate from Europe- or “the
continent” so Brexit wasn’t too surprising, especially as the British Commonwealth is
still intact- there is a reason the Queen or now the King’s picture hangs in the Sydney
Airport in Australia- and they will not want to compete with the French or the Germans for
leading the EU. Likewise, the Irish, Scotch, Welch consider themselves separate from the
English and there is a resurgence of nationalism in all three countries.
Mostly think all the old fault lines are returning in different forms.
From Huntington- have shared once before- but rings true- and at the local, national, and
international levels- now plop language, disability, and education issues in the middle of
it…MDB
“In the post-Cold War world flags count and so do other symbols of cultural
identity, including crosses, crescents, and even head coverings, because culture
counts, and cultural identity is what is most meaningful to most people. People
are discovering new but often old identities and marching under new but often
old flags which lead to wars with new but often old enemies.
One grim Weltanschauung for this new era was well expressed by the Venetian
nationalist demagogue in Michael Dibdin's novel, Dead Lagoon: "There
can be no true friends without true enemies. Unless we hate what we are not,
we cannot love what we are. These are the old truths we are painfully rediscovering
after a century and more of sentimental cant. Those who deny them
deny their family, their heritage, their culture, their birthright, their very selves!
They will not lightly be forgiven." The unfortunate truth in these old truths
cannot be ignored by statesmen and scholars. For peoples seeking identity and
reinventing ethnicity, enemies are essential, and the potentially most dangerous
enmities occur across the fault lines between the world's major civilizations.
The central theme of this book is that culture and cultural identities, which
at the broadest level are civilization identities, are shaping the patterns of
cohesion, disintegration, and conflict in the post-Cold War world. The five
parts of this book elaborate corollaries to this main proposition.”
From: Burke, Mack <Mack_Burke(a)baylor.edu>
Date: Monday, April 22, 2024 at 5:07 PM
To: project.leer(a)lists.it.utsa.edu <project.leer(a)lists.it.utsa.edu>,
project.diverse(a)lists.it.utsa.edu <project.diverse(a)lists.it.utsa.edu>
Subject: race, ethnicity, and ancestry
Working on a couple of papers- one on culture and disability.
There are three contested categories- race, ethnicity, and ancestry. Race is considered
not biologically accurate and part to wholly socially constructed depending on the person
you reference and ethnicity and culture can almost be used interchangeable sometimes- is
considered socially constructed but is hardened by some views promoted by critical theory
now. For a primer see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_theory
The newcomer is ancestry- In genome research- ancestry is what is being mapped. If you
remember Henry Louis Gates Jr. from Obama’s beer summit- he has been going around the
country giving people DNA tests- I don’t know if that is good or bad- I wasn’t able to
hear his talk.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Presents the Beall-Russell Lecture in the
Humanities<https://t.e2ma.net/click/arbrtk/ip39fuhd/eizidw>
April 17 at 3:30 p.m.
Renowned historian, scholar, American literary critic, filmmaker and Harvard professor
Henry Louis Gates Jr. presents “Finding Your Roots: Genealogy, Genetics, and
African-American History” from 3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. in Waco Hall, today, April 17. The
event is free and open to the public.
I haven’t taken an ancestry test- but I did them on our dogs- one 100% pure blood German
Shepard (part capitalist from the west and part communist from the east- they started to
import working dogs to the US after the Berlin wall fell (called the “Anti-fascist
protection barrier” on the East), and a Pit mix rescue that was listed as a “certified
Supermutt!” due to all the combinations.
There is an obsession with race, ethnicity, and ancestry right now that I think is
unhealthy- just my opinion, and ancestry seems like just another evolution of race to me,
just more accurate. But even if I am 100% Irish or Scotch-Irish- I am not going to join
the IRA anytime soon or hate on the English- but maybe someone does join Hamas, ISIS or a
neo-Nazi group (I did read some groups were now requiring a DNA test contingent upon
acceptance during the initiation process)- opportunities for mischief seem so great to me
on this one if people doesn’t start refocusing on universals over particulars- or at least
a balance. Here are regional divisions for the world, categorizing populations based on
geographical, cultural, and historical factors that genetics now maps people to…
More for you all to help us figure out…MDB
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8202415/
1. Africa:
* Northern Africa: Countries such as Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and
Sudan.
* Sub-Saharan Africa: Includes countries south of the Sahara Desert, encompassing
diverse ethnic groups, languages, and cultures.
1. Asia:
* East Asia: Countries such as China, Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Mongolia,
and Taiwan.
* Southeast Asia: Includes countries like Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, the
Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, and Myanmar.
* South Asia: Encompasses countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri
Lanka, Bhutan, and the Maldives.
* Central Asia: Includes countries such as Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan,
Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.
* West Asia (Middle East): Countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Turkey,
Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, and the Gulf States.
1. Europe:
* Western Europe: Includes countries such as France, Germany, the United Kingdom,
Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Austria, and parts of Italy and
Spain.
* Eastern Europe: Encompasses countries such as Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Belarus,
Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and
Moldova.
* Northern Europe: Includes countries such as Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland,
Iceland, and parts of the United Kingdom and Germany.
* Southern Europe: Encompasses countries such as Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece,
Cyprus, Malta, and parts of France and Croatia.
* Central Europe: Includes countries such as Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Czech
Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, and parts of France, Italy, and Croatia.
1. North America:
* United States: Comprising 50 states across the continent.
* Canada: The northernmost country in North America.
* Mexico: Located south of the United States, sharing a border with several U.S.
states.
1. South America:
* Brazil: The largest country in South America.
* Argentina: Located in the southern part of the continent.
* Colombia: Located in the northwestern part of South America.
* Peru: Home to ancient civilizations such as the Incas.
1. Oceania:
* Australia: A continent-country located in the Southern Hemisphere.
* New Zealand: Comprising two main islands in the southwestern Pacific Ocean.
* Pacific Islands: Including countries and territories such as Fiji, Papua New
Guinea, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, and many others.