Ancestry

[riddlerlife]

What effects does ancestry have on our general disposition, as well as our response to societal pressures? This is somewhat of a nature vs nurture question with a twist.

For example, my primary bloodlines are Scandanavian and Celtic. I view the world as an adventure, a place to breathe and live, sometimes even a place to conquer in the figurative sense.
Is this because I feel a connection and active interest in my ancestry, or because it has been "biochemically programmed" from the strong lives the Vikings and Celts lived?

Does anyone else experience/wonder this?

By the way, hello everyone, I've been reading this site for awhile, but have yet to post until now.

[lumberjim]

You're asking if a meme is hereditary, right?

this kind of thing MIGHT be true to a degree in "pure bred" people. meaning, people whose family melting pot is small. I have 9 different nationalities that i know of. jinx has 8. my kids have 14 or something. ( a couple of ours coincide) So, how do you apply that theory to someone like me? My physical appearance is mainly german/irish, but i also have english, scotch, welsh, french, dutch, sioux, and austrian. or something.

i do believe that in a lot of cases, your physical appearance gives CLUES to your disposition, and this is a similar question, as your appearance is directly correlated to your lineage. But then again, part of your physical appearance is how you dress, wear your hair ( if you have any) and how you carry yourself. I'll have to say "maybe" and that's final.

oh, and welcome.

[Lady Sidhe]

Hm....I dunno. I'm Scot-Irish, English and Cherokee on my mother's side, and Italian and French on my father's...I don't think very much of the English shows up except in my maiden name, which is Parker...maybe the Scot-Irish and Italian have something to do with my quick temper (and my love of capital punishment *weg*). The Cherokee probably gave me my bent towards paganism (Hey! We could SCALP violent criminals! Then everyone would know who they were!), and the French....well, I'm lazy by nature and hate getting into physical fights....does that count?


Then again, maybe none of it has anything at all to do with why I am the way I am. Matter of fact, I think that my birthchart has more influence...Taurus sun, gemini/cancer moon, and gemini rising...

(And if you think THAT'S bad, my daughter is a Capricorn sun, Leo moon--god help us all--and a Taurus rising....)



Sidhe

[OnyxCougar]

Naw.

My dad is a fullblood Brit, my mom is Chech/German.

My dad doesn't have his accent anymore, can't even fake a good one. Doesn't act Brit.

My accent still comes out when I'm mad or when I get a Brit (or Aussie) on the phone.

*I* don't think I look Brit, but I've been told by a few people that I do. It's all in the nurture. Not the genetics.

[xoxoxoBruce]

I don't think it works if the family has moved a lot. By moved I mean country to country, not city to city. Even a German moving to America and living in a German enclave will end up with different attitudes.
It probably has more to do with the admiration of ancestral traits that you want to emulate. If you found out your ancestors were cannibals, would you want to cook up your neighbor? Hmmm,...come to think of it, there is a neighbor, I'd like to eat.

[Griff]

There is some bio-chem stuff that that comes with my full Irish heritage. I used to relish er.. suffer black moods and my relationship with alcohol is complicated, but on the other hand I embrace the American fetish of liberty wholeheartedly. Of course, there were reasons my people got out of Ireland. Aside from her slaves, America has been choosing for folks with wanderlust from before there was an America, so maybe we're wired a little differently from other nationalities. All that aside, I will choose free will.

All this reminds me of an ethnic joke guaranteed to offend almost everyone:

In heaven:
the French are the cooks,
the Italians are the lovers
the British are the police
the Germans run the businesses
the Irish write the poetry
the Russians make the Vodka
the Swiss run the trains
and the Americans are not allowed in.

In hell:
the French run the trains
the Italians run the police
the British make the Vodka
the Germans write the poetry
the Irish run the businesses
the Russians run the government
the Swiss are the lovers
and the place is over-run with Americans

This was told to me by a Swiss, BTW. My own heritage is Swiss, Cherokee, and Welsh. How's that for a mutt? I think my upbringing by a Swiss mother would have impacted me, but my Cherokee bloodline canceled it out.

[Troubleshooter]

A lot of the new cognitive research is pointing to genetics as the larger of the controlling issues in the nature/nurture debate.

That being said, the nurture is what makes us the person we are. It's where we derive the more rational aspects of ourselves.

[kerosene]

My heritage is all German, though my family has been in the Americas since the 1930's and before that most of them were in Russia for a long period of time.

I don't think I have "German" tendencies, but I think those that came from the old world had them...I believe it was their concsious choice to keep their cultural tendencies, thus causing personality traits to stay within the line. As generations perpetuated, the need to keep their ancestors' ways of life going weakened and you might see a little bit of "German" come out in some of us, but we are mostly ourselves. So, to answer your question, I say it is a combination, but it is perpetuated by the desire to keep these cultural tendencies.

[wolf]

My heritage is sufficiently German that I have an irresistable impulse to invade Poland and France, but then I end up in a two front war with Russia and it all kind of falls apart.

[DanaC]

Ahah......ahahahahahahahah.....ahaha thats funny