Quote Originally Posted by Old Hippie View Post
I had to think about that a while. I grew up an American, and I've also had the immigrant experience of becoming a Canadian. I know whereof ChubRock speaks, about his part of the world and the Scandinavian influence there. My mother came from near there, and she always identified very strongly with the Norwegians, notwithstanding her maiden name was Alford, from around the town of that name in Scotland.

When I lived in Iowa, I knew that many Norwegian linguists came to the Decorah area to hear dialects of Norwegian that had died out long since in Norway. I suspect in time Cape Breton, Nova Scotia may take on the same significance to the Gaelic.

It's what sociologists call "The Museum Effect" -- immigrants preserve traditions that remind them of home, while back home the culture keeps evolving -- eventually leaving those traditions behind. There's a whole stack of conceptual research behind all this, but basically any group that identifies itself as a "diaspora" has to hold on to the possibility of "return." This is so even when there is "no there there" to which to return. Give up the idea of return, even if it's only a cultural tradition, and you are no longer a diasporic community. You're citizens of a different place.

(Imagine a group from the Scottish Diaspora, dressed as authentically as possible and well-versed in the politics, technology and manners of 1745. Now imagine them trying to "resettle" in Edinburgh...)

Looking at the interface between culture and identity is endlessly fascinating to me, which is why I do it for a living. There is a temptation to say it's all a cartoon. But ultimately the only things that have meaning to people are those things they have negotiated for themselves and incorporated into their lives. It all only has reality to the extent that it serves a useful purpose.

:ootd:
Well said -- this wins the "best post in this thread" award (from me anyway, for what that's worth!)

Where did you live in Iowa? It's interesting that you should mention Decorah and the Norwegian immigrant communities there -- my mother grew up in a small town just off of I-35 (Highway 69 then) about 30 miles south of Clear Lake/Mason City which was overwhelmingly Scandinavian in ethnicity (with a few Germans thrown in) -- even though we are not Norwegian, Norwegian culture can still be found in my mother's hatred of Lutefisk (she had to dip it out of the barrels at the store where she worked at Christmas) and my grandmother's limited Norwegian vocabulary (uff da!)

T.