Curious about a concept in the BIP

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Hey... I take exception to that. I'm epileptic and no one has ever given me any goats.  

Then you need to harass this person with your visions of imminent doom more often.

Hey!

Dammit. I want a villager to respect my authoritay as the apocalyptic vision-haver! And give me some fucking goats!

We ran out of goats last week I'm afraid. Not that easy to come by in Boston.

[Thurnez Isa]

Im 100% homo sapien








unfortunately

[Don Coyote]

I'm 102% Spag, 5% sawdust, 50% nylon, and 2% milk.

[Adios]

Hey... I take exception to that. I'm epileptic and no one has ever given me any goats.  

Then you need to harass this person with your visions of imminent doom more often.

Hey!

Dammit. I want a villager to respect my authoritay as the apocalyptic vision-haver! And give me some fucking goats!

We ran out of goats last week I'm afraid. Not that easy to come by in Boston.

My bad, I shouldn't have stared at them. 

[Don Coyote]

Hey... I take exception to that. I'm epileptic and no one has ever given me any goats.  

Then you need to harass this person with your visions of imminent doom more often.

Hey!

Dammit. I want a villager to respect my authoritay as the apocalyptic vision-haver! And give me some fucking goats!

We ran out of goats last week I'm afraid. Not that easy to come by in Boston.

My bad, I shouldn't have stared at them. 

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Or half Canadian, half Kiwi, conceived in India but born in Egypt and living in the Phillipines?

Assuming the Canadian is from Quebec, I would say French-Maori with an Egyptian passport.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Hey... I take exception to that. I'm epileptic and no one has ever given me any goats.  

Then you need to harass this person with your visions of imminent doom more often.

Hey!

Dammit. I want a villager to respect my authoritay as the apocalyptic vision-haver! And give me some fucking goats!

We ran out of goats last week I'm afraid. Not that easy to come by in Boston.

My bad, I shouldn't have stared at them. 

DAMN YOU CHARLEY!!!!

[Cain]

Or half Canadian, half Kiwi, conceived in India but born in Egypt and living in the Phillipines?

It means you're still not Swedish.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Or half Canadian, half Kiwi, conceived in India but born in Egypt and living in the Phillipines?

It means you're still not Swedish.

[East Coast Hustle]

I read the book YEARS ago.  I think I was still in college and simply remembered that it was an interesting book that involved science and shamanism and that I enjoyed reading it at the time.  Now I'm going to have to find time to reread it, research the concepts and see exactly how far out there the author actually is!  That amount of time might take awhile to find...

As to who in Northern Europe still follows shamanism, some of the Lapps in Sweden still follow their old beliefs and practices.

Are you a Lapp? Are you from Sweden directly?

My mother immigrated from Finland.  She is a Swedish Finn from generations of Swedish Finns who can trace their ancestry back to Sweden.  I am 50% Swedish.

No, you're not. I'm betting you've never even BEEN to Sweden. Having Swedish ancestors doesn't make YOU Swedish, jerklips.

This brings up an interesting question. If one of your parents is an American of indeterminate/mixed racial origin, and moves to the UK, breeds, and has you with some Britspag for the other parent, are you then half British and half American? Do you get to go around telling people about  your American heritage? How does that work, exactly?

What about a half-Australian, half-American born in France?

I'd say you're British, though obviously with american heritage.

"I have American heritage" != "I'm half-American."

As for the half Aussie/half American born in France, I'd say they're French, provided they live there and grow up with that language and culture as their baseline. If they're just BORN in France but move back to one country or the other in infancy, then that's a different story.

Basically, what I'm saying is that where you're "from" is way more a product of your cultural/linguistic imprints than of your genetic heritage.

For example...

I was born in Maine, but only because my parents refused to have me at the hospital on STT, which was sub-3rd world back in the 70s. We moved back to the island as soon as they were comfortable putting my infant ass on a plane. As far as I (and everyone else in the world whose opinion I care about) am concerned, being born in Maine has no bearing on what I "am". My earliest cultural and linguistic imprints are Anglophone Caribbean, my family ties are to the Caribbean, and if the USVI ever became an independent sovereign country, I'd give up my US citizenship for VI citizenship.

I'm also not saying that people shouldn't embrace and/or honor their heritage. Of course they should (unless they're Welsh). But what you are and how you got there are two different things.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Or half Canadian, half Kiwi, conceived in India but born in Egypt and living in the Phillipines?

It means you're still not Swedish.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I read the book YEARS ago.  I think I was still in college and simply remembered that it was an interesting book that involved science and shamanism and that I enjoyed reading it at the time.  Now I'm going to have to find time to reread it, research the concepts and see exactly how far out there the author actually is!  That amount of time might take awhile to find...

As to who in Northern Europe still follows shamanism, some of the Lapps in Sweden still follow their old beliefs and practices.

Are you a Lapp? Are you from Sweden directly?

My mother immigrated from Finland.  She is a Swedish Finn from generations of Swedish Finns who can trace their ancestry back to Sweden.  I am 50% Swedish.

No, you're not. I'm betting you've never even BEEN to Sweden. Having Swedish ancestors doesn't make YOU Swedish, jerklips.

This brings up an interesting question. If one of your parents is an American of indeterminate/mixed racial origin, and moves to the UK, breeds, and has you with some Britspag for the other parent, are you then half British and half American? Do you get to go around telling people about  your American heritage? How does that work, exactly?

What about a half-Australian, half-American born in France?

I'd say you're British, though obviously with american heritage.

"I have American heritage" != "I'm half-American."

As for the half Aussie/half American born in France, I'd say they're French, provided they live there and grow up with that language and culture as their baseline. If they're just BORN in France but move back to one country or the other in infancy, then that's a different story.

Basically, what I'm saying is that where you're "from" is way more a product of your cultural/linguistic imprints than of your genetic heritage.

For example...

I was born in Maine, but only because my parents refused to have me at the hospital on STT, which was sub-3rd world back in the 70s. We moved back to the island as soon as they were comfortable putting my infant ass on a plane. As far as I (and everyone else in the world whose opinion I care about) am concerned, being born in Maine has no bearing on what I "am". My earliest cultural and linguistic imprints are Anglophone Caribbean, my family ties are to the Caribbean, and if the USVI ever became an independent sovereign country, I'd give up my US citizenship for VI citizenship.

I'm also not saying that people shouldn't embrace and/or honor their heritage. Of course they should (unless they're Welsh). But what you are and how you got there are two different things.

Yeah, that was pretty much the point I was trying to make. I'm of American indian, Welsh, and African descent... but when it comes right down to it, my national identity is American, and my regional identity is Pacific Northwest... those are more significant identifiers and vastly more informative about who I am than trying to look at my ancestral origins. Although, you still have to take into consideration the different experience someone will have simply by being brown, even in a liberal-progressive haven like Portland. (HINT: it makes you invisible to white people!)

[Xooxe]

I noticed some Americans bringing up other countries as backup identities and I wondered whether people do that a lot over there.

[BabylonHoruv]

I noticed some Americans bringing up other countries as backup identities and I wondered whether people do that a lot over there.

Yes we do.  We're not an old enough country to have much heritage, plus we still get a fair amount of immigration from the rest of the world.

[Cain]

I don't know about over there, but the ones I knew over here did it so often it was frequently mocked.