Quote Originally Posted by Rob View Post
Genetic studies show that the vast majority of English people (about 95%) were not descended from the Anglo-Saxon invaders/settlers of the 5th/6th centuries, so to label the English as being Anglo-Saxons is inaccurate. Most of the English of today were descendents of the post-Ice Age migrants from Northern Iberia, just as the Welsh, Scots and Irish were. Their ancestors spoke a Celtic language just as the ancestors of the Welsh, Scots and Irish did, so if the definition of a 'Celt' is someone who speaks (or whose ancestors spoke) a Celtic language, then the English are just as much Celts as the Scots are.
You've made a wonderful point there!

If nationality is dependant on language you either have to speak the language to be that nationality or have come from a place where it was once spoken. Either of those definitions has big holes in it. The former description would entail that you can only be Welsh, for example, if you spoke Welsh. The second example means that just by being in the region you could say youre Welsh but you could add in many other things (like English, French & Latin cause they were spoken in that region). Secondly how to you identify which region is valid - they speak Romanian in some part of the EU, I'm European so does that mean I can say I'm Romanian too?

It's already been shown that nationality doesn't really depend on blood either, blood mixes nearly as easily as culture. Indeed the funny thing is that Celts as a ethnic group didn't really come across to Britain & Ireland.

It can't be based on land either cause you're simply describing where certain people lived, and that's more a descriptor of people than land cause people move all over the place. The moving border over time between England and Scotland is a fine example of how little meaning taking your identity from which territory a group of people once owned is.

Culture itself blends and changes and it's extraordinarily difficult to make cultures exclusive of other cultures. That's cause culture is just customs and ideas and they spread as memes through societies just through communication and information.

I do believe that the idea of nationality is a useful way of describing heritage but people generally put far too much stock in it and use it as a way of identifying themselves. Nationalities in the past have just been used as political rallying tools without much bearing on the truth hidden in the history, cause when you do look at the roots of it all you find nationalities to be far more nebulous and abstract than many people believe.

As such I will happily admit to having certain heritages which helped to influence me and my surroundings but what I do and where I physically am dictate my actual identity. That's why I like the OP for blending cultures and perceptions

Sorry rant over!