locality as ethnicity ( Thu, 24 Feb 1994 19:01:55 -0600)

From: IN%"pch%world.std.com@UICVM.UIC.EDU" "peter c holloran" 24-FEB-1994

18: 57:25.91

I wonder if there is a body of historical literature arguing that inhabitants of a region in the USA are an ethnic group. However important regionalism may be ( and it certainly is in New England as much as in Texas ), is it related to ethnicity? I will look forward to some discussion on this.

[ed note: we have a sister list H-SOUTH that is keen on this topic. And perhaps H-ITALY, when it starts up, will have some commentary on N vs S in that nation.

R Jensen]







localized populations as ethnic groups; 2 more comments ( Sat, 26 Feb 1994 16:05:42 -0600)

A. from: Bob Lorinskas Southern Illinois U.

GA3545@siucvmb.siu.edu or GA3545@siucvmb.bitnet Victor R. Greene suggests looking at Applachians as ethnics, I would suggest that you might find interest in a little research note that I did in East Tennessee back in 1969. At that time it was not popular to suggest that WASP's might also be viewed as an ethnic group. Lorinskas, Robert A. "The Political Impact of Anglo-Saxon Ethnicity,' ETHNICITY Vol 1, 417-421 (1974)







B. From: NGSAPPER@PCAD-ML.ACTX.EDU

Neil G. Sapper Amarillo College

As a non-Texan living in Texas, I am convinced that Texans are as ethnic as Croatians, Bosnians, Palestinians, Ulsterites, or any other ethnic groups. As far as "blood and soil" sensibilities, Texans have a strong attachment to their land. I lived in Colorado for twenty+ years before I came to Texas and Coloradans have a strong attachment to the Rockies. I was not sensitive to the ethnic issue at the time I lived in Colorado, but I now believe there is a deep devotion to the land in the value systems of each group. And there are definite sub-ethnic groups in Texas: the Panhandle where I live is more akin to Kansas, but there is a distinct Texas flavor here. Yet the Panhandle is vastly different from deep East Texas (as Texans state it). Different cuisine, different dialect, different religious practices/emphases, and yet Texan. It was the same in Colorado. The Rockies divided that state just as the Pyrenees divide France and Spain, but the Basques who live there consider themselves "different" (superior to?) from the Spanish or the French. In Colorado, those who live on the Western Slope consider themselves "different" from those who live in eastern Colorado (or outside the state). Only a Coloradan can get misty-eyed while singing, "When It's Springtime in the Rockies." I didn't realize it at the time, but that song was an anthem to "blood and soil." We are appalled at ethnic violence in Ulster, but every time the Louisiana State Unviversity Bengals play the Ol' Miss Rebels in football, the Louisiana faithful chant (at the top of their lungs): "Go to Hell, Ol' Miss. Go to Hell." College football has become a safety valve (and there are others) so that we don't experience the hellish alternative in Bosnia. It would not take much to trigger the sort of violence that caused us to avert our eyes from the Sarajevo marketplace in Baton Rouge, LA or Jackson, MS during a football game. Well, I've gone on long enough about local ethnicity. I look forward to seeing some other perspectives.







localism-ethnicity in Italy, China ( Sun, 27 Feb 1994 15:49:44 -0600) From Donna Gabaccia, U of North Carolina, Charlotte FHI00DRG@UNCCVM.UNCC.EDU Emily Honig presented an interesting paper at this year's AHA about a regional group of Chinese who struck her as becoming an ethnic group when they moved to the city. In Italy, regional differences are rarely described as ethnic, but campanilismo (local loyalties and identities) certainly shares some traits with ethnicity. See Cinel on Italian regionalism or integration of return migrants, the huge Italian discussion of the mezzogiorno (the south); and the long tradition in both Italy and the U.S. of treating Sicilians (as in my own work) as culturally different from other Italians (whom the Sicilians, by the way, call "continentali).