The Cultural String
As I have gotten older I have become more in touch with myself as I have taken the information I have learned studying history and applying it to my own life. Much of what I have learned only confirmed what I believed as a young man. Some of what I have learned is startling and quite odd.
I've always known what I like, what is natural to me and what is foreign. My musical tastes, my preference for women, my social mores. The comfort of a smokey hardwood fire. My preferences are strong, natural and comforting. It feels like home.
I also know what is foreign and what I strongly dislike. My inquisitiveness draws me to explore some of these foreign concepts and things but in the end I usually reject the discoveries as unnatural for me.
I believe that there are invisible cultural strings that bind us to the culture of our dominant forebears. These strings aren't neccessarily taught, since as in my case, my parents weren't even aware of many of these cultural tendencies. The melting pot of American culture doesn't teach these cultural tendencies. And genetic code can't account for these strings. So it must be something else.
I'll cite my situation as example. My father was born from an Anglo-Irish line but was raised as an American. My mother was born from a German line and raised as an American. I have Anglo-Irish-German blood. My father never claimed to have Irish blood but his humor and fighting spirit that defined him was clearly Irish. Of his eight brothers, only two showed the Irish cultural tendencies that came from his Irish grandparents.
I was raised never knowing I had Irish blood, but as I studied Irish history and culture I felt a great bond with these people. Something was there. When I studied Anglo and German culture, I felt nothing. It was dead to me. So where did this cultural preference come from?
After researching my family's geneology, I learned the origins of my forebears. Most of my forebears could not care less about where they came from. They became Americans and forgot the past.
How and why do black Americans, ripped from there African tribal culture, raised as slaves, freed and educated in Anglo America learn how to adopt African tribal culture generations later? Women in tribal Africa
mated with multiple males to ensure their place in the tribe. Which is what we see everywhere in America. How was this cultural behavior learned? Where is this cultural behavior taught?
There are many beautiful brown, yellow and black skinned women in this world. They have never appealed to me and I certainly never wanted to have children with these women. It just seemed wrong. African, Indian, Chinese, Jewish, Arabic and even German music is either dead or grating to my soul. I have a strong preference for clasarch, fiddle and bodran music. These preferences can't really be taught.
Somehow an Irish cultural string attaches me to my Irish forebears. I don't understand it but I know it exists. Could we be reincarnated souls from a cultural pool? Or does God pick our souls from tribes that He created in the Beginning? I don't pretend to understand. But I do observe. Something is there.
I've always known what I like, what is natural to me and what is foreign. My musical tastes, my preference for women, my social mores. The comfort of a smokey hardwood fire. My preferences are strong, natural and comforting. It feels like home.
I also know what is foreign and what I strongly dislike. My inquisitiveness draws me to explore some of these foreign concepts and things but in the end I usually reject the discoveries as unnatural for me.
I believe that there are invisible cultural strings that bind us to the culture of our dominant forebears. These strings aren't neccessarily taught, since as in my case, my parents weren't even aware of many of these cultural tendencies. The melting pot of American culture doesn't teach these cultural tendencies. And genetic code can't account for these strings. So it must be something else.
I'll cite my situation as example. My father was born from an Anglo-Irish line but was raised as an American. My mother was born from a German line and raised as an American. I have Anglo-Irish-German blood. My father never claimed to have Irish blood but his humor and fighting spirit that defined him was clearly Irish. Of his eight brothers, only two showed the Irish cultural tendencies that came from his Irish grandparents.
I was raised never knowing I had Irish blood, but as I studied Irish history and culture I felt a great bond with these people. Something was there. When I studied Anglo and German culture, I felt nothing. It was dead to me. So where did this cultural preference come from?
After researching my family's geneology, I learned the origins of my forebears. Most of my forebears could not care less about where they came from. They became Americans and forgot the past.
How and why do black Americans, ripped from there African tribal culture, raised as slaves, freed and educated in Anglo America learn how to adopt African tribal culture generations later? Women in tribal Africa
mated with multiple males to ensure their place in the tribe. Which is what we see everywhere in America. How was this cultural behavior learned? Where is this cultural behavior taught?
There are many beautiful brown, yellow and black skinned women in this world. They have never appealed to me and I certainly never wanted to have children with these women. It just seemed wrong. African, Indian, Chinese, Jewish, Arabic and even German music is either dead or grating to my soul. I have a strong preference for clasarch, fiddle and bodran music. These preferences can't really be taught.
Somehow an Irish cultural string attaches me to my Irish forebears. I don't understand it but I know it exists. Could we be reincarnated souls from a cultural pool? Or does God pick our souls from tribes that He created in the Beginning? I don't pretend to understand. But I do observe. Something is there.
posted by lugh lampfhota at 10:23 PM
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