What ethnic identities can be identified and historically traced in north Americas past?

Name:
Course title:
Name of instructor:
Date:
What ethnic identities can be identified and historically traced in North America’s past?
The idea of ethnic identity as a topic of concern in archeology and behavioral sciences emerged in the early 1960s, and today it has become more salient topic than the previous decades. Ethnicity according to Alba Richard (14) is a concept mainly used by the unprivileged group to seek out their rights and claim some from privileges from the current power structures denied the same from the previous powers.
Over the past North America’s ethnic minorities have been looking for such rights by provoking the civil rights and demanding some privileges denied before. Some factors have led to provoking of this interest. One of them is the struggle of the civil rights groups in the 20th and 21st century to demand African American rights.
This attribute to the movement trying to influence their leaders and cultures, in general, to take control of their ethnic identity, and consequently redefine their ethnic and cultural group. However, the emergence of social movements led to more upsurge on this topic of ethnicity in North America and created more awareness on the issue. The aim of this paper, therefore, is to discuss to discuss the Germany-American identity living in Philadelphia and Virginia regions of North America (Baltzell, Digby pg 21).

It is good to note that as more North Americans are largely understanding and realizing their ancestors especially in the states of Virginia and Philadelphia, the more it is influencing their lives.

To become more aware of the origin many Germany-Americans living in the Philadelphia and Virginia are studying the past records that are describing their social history.
At the beginning of the first third of 20th Century many Germany Philadelphians, particularly the children from immigrant’s family moved away from Germany – American identity and instead came up with new multiple identities aimed to create some degree of understanding on their race and religion as well as culture.
Over the recent time with submergence of German-American, an ethnic group in Philadelphia and Virginia creates a great deal on Germany blackish during the First World War. However, during the 1910s and 1920s, there was a development that came along to reshape Germany living in Philadelphia as a way to create a sense of self. Some of those developments included the introduction of more conformist American nationalism that damaged the reputation of the older one of which characterized by the nations pluralists view (Duncan et al., pg 36).
With the emergence of these events has led to many Germans living in Philadelphia as Philadelphians of Germany to struggle much in identifying their background though their reactions that hardly varied. Somewhat, their struggle has been varied on the spheres of religion and class and some their gender which for a long time had divided the Germany Philadelphia.
A few middle class, as well as Germany Lutherans, embraced their American identity despite strong opposition from the Italians and people from the southeastern Europe who were mostly the immigrants. Because of this, the idea of racialism increased among the Germany Philadelphians and a few who were living in Virginia being termed as ‘Nordic’ Americans.
Their racial stock made them superior compared to other immigrants. This was because the older Germans brought before the revolution were mostly the settlers. However, in the 1920s, the majority of the working class Germanys and Catholics who were living in Philadelphia began to mix in both social groupings and parishes with Irish immigrants. Both workers and Catholics found themselves with a common character of having shared the white identity with their neighbors. This identity gained salience especially in Philadelphia where they were joined later by African-Americans and created a great Europe-Africa Americans (Gans, Herbert pg 77).
At the beginning of the inter-war period, a new force emerged referred to as the white ethnic. Both men and women involved themselves in such identities but because of various social contexts and the expectations that women had meant a lot in understanding their identities differently. The women from Germany adopted a certain advantage of separating themselves, a move that predicted a war. At the beginning of rising consumer culture, women were offered a new kind of identity, because of their new role as consumers.
Just like many historical arguments, this created some limitations; first, it shows how Philadelphians of Germany moved away from any association with ethnic origin. It can also indicate a clear picture in redefinitions of multiple identities that emerged between the 1920s and 30s. Studies have been indicating various significant routes of Germany – Americans in Philadelphia and Virginia, but some of these routes did not leave a landmark for tracing Germany background. This creates both archeological and historical gap to be addressed and researched on by the current anthropologists.
Work Cited
Alba Richard. Immigration and the American realities of assimilation and multiculturalism. Sociological Forum. 1999;14:3–25.
Baltzell E. Digby. The Protestant Establishment: Aristocracy and Caste in America. Vintage Books; New York: 1964.
Barringer Herbert, Gardner Robert W., Levin Michael J. Asian and Pacific
Duncan, Brian, Trejo Stephen J. Ancestry versus ethnicity: The complexity and selectivity of Mexican identification in the United States. paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America; New Orleans. 2008.
Gans Herbert J. Symbolic ethnicity: The future of ethnic groups and cultures in America. Ethnic and Racial Studies. 1979;2:1–20.