I HAS A HUNGER, BUT I HAS NO FLAVOUR
I know one of the whole motivations in not being in the reconstructionist ThouShaltDoItRite Fundietru community is to not have to identify myself with an ethno-biological Germanic subset and then slavishly follow their (supposed) preferences and traditions. But sometimes, not having an "angle" is really frustrating, even demoralising.
I mean, there can be advantages with working with your ancestors, or studying and recreating historical practices of one place/time/tribe... Continuity, cohesiveness, focus. Knowing where to look, and who to talk to. It makes browsing the library easier...
But for those of us for whom it is difficult, or impossible, to easily identify with one time and/or place, things aren't so clear cut - it makes research a bit of a bitch. This is especially so if one wants to keep some form of coherency about one's practice, rather than drawing from any and every bit of germanic, nordic, or scandinavian information that crops up.
I don't know how it goes for people with no Northern European ancestry... What happens to people who are in the "food group", but don't have a distinct ancestral or environmental "flavour"? Germanic ancestry, I has it... somewhere...
Basically, I can't trace my family back too far. Illiterate farmers and coalminers don't tend to keep very good archives. I've got family from Glamorgan in Wales, Lancashire, the northernmost tip of Scotland, south-east Ireland, and Devon. That mixture gives me an apparent genetic background of Celtiberian, Norwegian, Anglo-Saxon, probably a smidge of Danish, and the good ol' "broader paleo/neolithic European".
However, you've got a good 800 years or so between the latest wave of germanic immigration and any family members I can personally identify. While much of my immediate, living family was actually born in the UK & Ireland, they're products of a post-Elizabethan British Isles. To them, the historic germanic or nordic presence in the area is something that happens on the Discovery Channel. So while, genetically, I may be "all that nor'westerly European germanic stuff", in reality my family is a product of their modern British/NZ environment. They have no practices, no traditions I can adopt or revive as relevant to my faith.
I also live in an area where there are no visible Scandinavian or Nordic cultural societies. Chinese Sunshine Society? Check. Alliance Francaise? Check. Caledonian Society? Check. Italians, Arabs, South Africans, Samoans, Bangladeshis, Croatians, Cambodians, Fijians, Irish, Indians, and Israelis? Check, check, check.
The Norwegian Club, Finnish Society, and Swedish Association don't have branches in this province. The Danish Society seems tiny, insular, and full of Lutherans. There is apparently no Icelandic club or society in the country at all. Besides - I have no real life connection to any of those areas; those clubs are all full of recent immigrants, not NZers who are nostalgically viewing the ways of their forebears. I'd feel like I had "cultural appropriation: WANNABE" stamped across my forehead. They'd say "Velkommen" and I'd see "Eh oop, lad, ha's tha been?". ;-p
So what do I do? Pick whichever "path" appeals aesthetically, or has the most available information? Play "lolly scramble" and keep adding slivers of everything I find until I have a big eclectic soap-sliver ball of Stuff? I don't feel I can completely ignore the historical practice of This, My Faith; without understanding of context I might as well be just a trained monkey copying its owner. Picking things up eclectically rubs me the wrong way eventually, as information from one place can contradict or confuse information from other places.
I dunno. Wangst. I guess I'll just get on with it until I have reason to do otherwise.
I mean, there can be advantages with working with your ancestors, or studying and recreating historical practices of one place/time/tribe... Continuity, cohesiveness, focus. Knowing where to look, and who to talk to. It makes browsing the library easier...
But for those of us for whom it is difficult, or impossible, to easily identify with one time and/or place, things aren't so clear cut - it makes research a bit of a bitch. This is especially so if one wants to keep some form of coherency about one's practice, rather than drawing from any and every bit of germanic, nordic, or scandinavian information that crops up.
I don't know how it goes for people with no Northern European ancestry... What happens to people who are in the "food group", but don't have a distinct ancestral or environmental "flavour"? Germanic ancestry, I has it... somewhere...
Basically, I can't trace my family back too far. Illiterate farmers and coalminers don't tend to keep very good archives. I've got family from Glamorgan in Wales, Lancashire, the northernmost tip of Scotland, south-east Ireland, and Devon. That mixture gives me an apparent genetic background of Celtiberian, Norwegian, Anglo-Saxon, probably a smidge of Danish, and the good ol' "broader paleo/neolithic European".
However, you've got a good 800 years or so between the latest wave of germanic immigration and any family members I can personally identify. While much of my immediate, living family was actually born in the UK & Ireland, they're products of a post-Elizabethan British Isles. To them, the historic germanic or nordic presence in the area is something that happens on the Discovery Channel. So while, genetically, I may be "all that nor'westerly European germanic stuff", in reality my family is a product of their modern British/NZ environment. They have no practices, no traditions I can adopt or revive as relevant to my faith.
I also live in an area where there are no visible Scandinavian or Nordic cultural societies. Chinese Sunshine Society? Check. Alliance Francaise? Check. Caledonian Society? Check. Italians, Arabs, South Africans, Samoans, Bangladeshis, Croatians, Cambodians, Fijians, Irish, Indians, and Israelis? Check, check, check.
The Norwegian Club, Finnish Society, and Swedish Association don't have branches in this province. The Danish Society seems tiny, insular, and full of Lutherans. There is apparently no Icelandic club or society in the country at all. Besides - I have no real life connection to any of those areas; those clubs are all full of recent immigrants, not NZers who are nostalgically viewing the ways of their forebears. I'd feel like I had "cultural appropriation: WANNABE" stamped across my forehead. They'd say "Velkommen" and I'd see "Eh oop, lad, ha's tha been?". ;-p
So what do I do? Pick whichever "path" appeals aesthetically, or has the most available information? Play "lolly scramble" and keep adding slivers of everything I find until I have a big eclectic soap-sliver ball of Stuff? I don't feel I can completely ignore the historical practice of This, My Faith; without understanding of context I might as well be just a trained monkey copying its owner. Picking things up eclectically rubs me the wrong way eventually, as information from one place can contradict or confuse information from other places.
I dunno. Wangst. I guess I'll just get on with it until I have reason to do otherwise.