I have often criticized peoples' racist views on the place of ethnicity in the process of self-identification, and will continue to do so. To me, proudly identifying oneself as "black" or "white", European, African, Asian, has little merit, and while often relatively innocuous and perhaps even helpful in establishing a feeling of community, serves primarily to alienate and exclude other people on meaningless and arbitrary grounds, and to excuse the guilty party in question from the need to develop a personality or identity of any actual value in order to gain acceptance by a group of "peers." In short, I use the word in quotations because in my opinion there is no such thing as an ethnic peer; it is a meaningless concept.

All of that said, humanity is, for many reasons into which I will not delve at this point, permanently in need of identity, of purpose, and of a feeling of belonging. While this should never be allowed to control one's actions, it can certainly lead to a rather pervasive curiosity about one's ancestry or cultural background - especially in the case of someone like me. My mother was adopted at birth, and I have never met my biological father. While my loyalty to my family is not lessened by this lack of background (it may in fact be strengthened), my father's well documented Scottish roots represent my only knowledge of my ancestry, and genetically speaking, it isn't really my ancestry at all, and this can sometimes be irritating. At times I become acutely aware of the fact, and feel the need to start tracking my actual bloodline. I have considered tracing my biological father, which I'm certain wouldn't be difficult as I have a recent address and understand he attended high school in Brantford and may have remaining contacts that I could pursue. In terms of ethnic identity, however, this process is hardly necessary; he was known to be predominantly Welsh in descent. My Mother's history is a little trickier to pin down as she is not currently aware even of the names of her birth parents. That said, I'm quite certain my Grandmother would have this information and I may well be able to track them down, given a good deal of effort and time. Again, however, my Mother was born in Caerdydd, quite probably to ethnically Welsh parents, and adopted into a Welsh family. [NOTE: I will proceed, for now, under this assumption, although her superficial appearance does not entirely support it. Perhaps one day I will discover otherwise.]

So, this particular evening, identifying myself as probably of particularly reinforced Welsh background, I decided to try and trace down WHO my people really were.

Noticing some superficial resemblance to the (usually much larger) Norse peoples, I was not surprised to find that Wales (along with England and Scotland) was largely overrun with Norman influence in the form of an invasion and cultural migration beginning in the mid 11th century (Conor, I'm sure you're far better acquainted with this than I am, though correct me if it's too far outside your scope). The Normans themselves were an ethnically distinct people of northern France, descended directly from Viking invaders from Norway who settled there after a series of raids during the middle to late 9th century. Add to this that many more of those raids were directed at areas of the Welsh coast, and you never know where the blood might have found its way in. This influence probably explains the hair, and my innate tendency toward aggression. It is not, I'll wager, responsible for my strong sense of empathy toward other human beings.

So, there is likely Norse influence; I knew that already, and had only to confirm the origins, which I figure I've now done. Now, that said, given the strong Welsh and Irish separation from the Anglo-Saxon peoples to the North and East, the rest of it is likely to be primarily Celtic. Who were the Celts? There has been a great deal of controversy over this one, I understand, but there appears to be some fairly compelling genetic evidence to suggest that Gaelic people are more closely related to the indigenous Basque minority in Northern Spain and Southern France than to any other people, and can probably trace their history directly to a period of homogenization caused by a glacially motivated convergence of paleolithic Europeans on the Iberian peninsula. It seems likely due to lack of genetic deviation that migration of the Gaels from this region to Britain and Ireland was relatively swift and direct.

So, where does this leave me? Reinforced, if anything. The Vikings were a brutish and disgusting people given to perpetual violence, and as such their genetic influence is an unlikely symbol of pride in my case. Perhaps more so because my Norse blood is likely blood that was inserted, directly or indirectly, by means of domination, associating me more with the conquered than the conquerors.

And most of the blood still runs to the Celtic side of things. Which means what, exactly? There is, I suppose, a relatively modern feeling of Welsh solidarity, and there are some cultural traditions (specifically sheep farming, singing, archery, coal mining, and culinary delights involving cheese) which are strongly associated with my people. But overall the Celts seem to lack the long and complex and well documented history from which I could benefit from a cultural standpoint were I, for example, French, or German, Slavic, Greek, Albanian, Jewish, etc. And in terms of genetics, descended mostly from a homogenized stock of early stone-age hunter-gatherers, I am literally a generic European. Once again, ladies and gentlemen, I have no real identity outside myself.

A point of interest. Now I'm tired, and wish to sleep.