You can say where your family was from, the history of how they moved from place to place, where they lived. But ultimately everyone is a mix. I should also say that descent did not define ethnicity and there were many other markers that did.
-
-
Replying to @AdmiralHip @ISASaxonists
Surely this isn't the case in areas such as Cumbria? I understand that the north west had a strong irish/scottish/Norse identity and didn't mix with 'England' linguistically or genetically until the late middle ages, right?
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes -
Replying to @dorsetexile83 @ISASaxonists
This is a long and difficult topic but I’ll try to make this clear. In the Neolithic period there was a large scale migration of peoples that populated Europe and either assimilated or displaced the Paleolithic peoples. However, there is no evidence of a mass migration later on.
1 reply 0 retweets 1 like -
So functionally the peoples of Northern Europe especially are not that different, genetically. This is a change to the old thinking of culture = descent. So we need to rethink how cultures moved. It was through contact and change rather than mass movement of people.
1 reply 0 retweets 1 like -
So yes, in NW Britain and Ireland, different languages and cultures. However, there was still plenty of movement. Who’s to say there weren’t “Germanic” people who integrated into British-speaking cultures? We know it happened with nobility.
1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes -
Plenty of Irish/Welsh/Pictish women were the wives or concubines of English kings, and likely vice versa. The idea that peasants didn’t move? Another misconception. Who’s to say a regular dude didn’t up and leave and integrate?
1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes -
Regular folks probably didn’t even think in these terms. They just thought, this is my land and this is what I speak, but those people over the ridge speak something else. But there are interpreters, merchants.
1 reply 0 retweets 1 like -
Territories shifted regularly. The Pictish kingdoms ceased to exist one day. They stop being recorded. Then suddenly we have the kingdom of Alba and those folks now speak Gaelic. Why? Probably an effort to assimilate to a culture that seems to be more powerful atm.
2 replies 0 retweets 4 likes -
Regular people probably still spoke Pictish for a long time though. And you got Bernicia, which may have been a British kingdom given the name, and it was in SW Scotland. But in the written sources they are Anglian/English.
1 reply 0 retweets 1 like -
Language and identity shifts and moves. We need to stop thinking in terms of descent. It’s never been about descent. If I look at my genealogy most of my ancestors are from Europe, but all over. Modern identity cannot be mapped to medieval. Or in some cases generations.
1 reply 1 retweet 2 likes
I’m not Scottish, or English, or Norman, or Irish. I’m a white Canadian whose ancestors lived in those places and intermarried and mixed. Hell I have a Black ancestor from 8 generations back or so. White people are particularly obsessed with how our descent defines us.
-
-
But we are honestly not that different. Seriously. Those sites, 23andme and ancestry? Those DNA sites? Discredited by genetists.
1 reply 0 retweets 1 like -
Culture is not descent, nationality isn’t ethnicity, and everyone is closer related than people think.
1 reply 0 retweets 1 like - Show replies
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.