“Ethnicity remains a vital force in this country, amajor form of group identification, and a major determinant of familypatterns and belief systems.”
By Suzanne McVetty
10 March 1994
Unitedin a common goal, we, the readers of Ancestry, are working to learnabout our ancestors’ lives. Though each of us may be alone in this taskwithin our own families, we share a common interest with millions ofpeople. Through this interest, we gain an understanding of not only ourfamily but also our own ethnic identity. Our ethnicity, which is a partof our personal history, helps mold our own individuality. It is apowerful influence in determining our identity, and we are together inthe quest to learn who we are.
America in the past has been called a “melting pot,” implying thatwe believed the distinctions among people of different ethnicbackgrounds were unimportant. At one time this viewpoint may have beentrue; today, however, American interests are more in line withpreserving ethnic identities rather than blending and losing all traitsof other cultural pasts.
A sense of belonging and historical continuity are basicpsychological needs. We need only browse the cookbook aisle in abookstore to see the growing emphasis not only on cultural qualitiesbut on regions as well. A quick look along the shelf will revealItalian, French, Chinese, and Japanese cookbooks, as well as thosedevoted to Southern, Western, New England, or California cooking.Today, both our foreign cultural backgrounds and our regionalresidences help to identify us as Americans.
It seems that as the twentieth century arrived, bringing many newimmigrants representing many ethnic groups to our shores, our need todifferentiate our identities grew. This need may be more stronglyrepresented in urban and suburban areas, where the ethnic flavor ismore diverse, than in more rural communities that have remainedrelatively stable.