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I think there's a powerful point there: fear of assimilation. Many groups seem to fight very hard to keep their culture pure, or at least to maintain the appea

I think there's a powerful point there: fear of assimilation. Many groups seem to fight very hard to keep their culture pure, or at least to maintain the appearance of it. Afraid to lose valued cultural practices. But then is it a wonder why we have division in the world? There is a book that came out about castes (I saw the movie) and the first principle to maintaining a caste system was endogamy: only allowed to fall in love with people within one's group. So if we can't love people outside our group, then well, we have division. I'd argue it leads to self-hatred, as we naturally love and to fight against it causes us to fight against ourselves, but that's a much deeper conversation.

graemep 2y ago
As a member of an ethnic group that has almost disappeared through assimilation, I regret the loss of culture (much as not even reached my generation) but had no wish to marry within the group. I just want to pass on a few good things (like the bits I am familiar with of our cuisine).
- jimkleiber 2y ago
  I appreciate you sharing your story. I wonder how much, in assimilation, artifacts from other cultures remain, or fuse, with artifacts of the "main" culture or whatever we want to call it. In other words, do the things from our culture disappear, or just appear to change shape but maintain many of the same structural elements? What comes to mind are Greek gods with Roman names, or possibly the Easter bunny coming from an ancient pagan festival called Eostre [0]. [0]: https://www.thefield.co.uk/country-house/easter-eostre-24035 https://www.thefield.co.uk/country-house/easter-eostre-24035