American ancestry
Total population | |
---|---|
19,364,103 (5.93%) 2021 estimates, self-reported[1] | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Southern United States and Midwestern United States, especially Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia | |
Languages | |
English (American English dialects) | |
Religion | |
Predominantly Christianity (mainly Protestantism) | |
Related ethnic groups | |
American ancestries |
American ancestry refers to
Although
Etymology
The earliest attested use of the term "American" to identify an ancestral or cultural identity dates to the late 1500s, with the term signifying "the indigenous peoples discovered in the Western Hemisphere by Europeans."[14] In the following century, the term "American" was extended as a reference to colonists of European descent.[14] The Oxford English Dictionary identifies this secondary meaning as "historical" and states that the term "American" today "chiefly [means] a native (birthright) or citizen of the United States."[14]
Historical reference
President Theodore Roosevelt asserted that an "American race" had been formed on the American frontier, one distinct from other ethnic groups, such as the Anglo-Saxons.[15]: 78, 131 He believed "(t)he conquest and settlement by the whites of the Indian lands was necessary to the greatness of the race...."[15]: 78 "We are making a new race, a new type, in this country."[15] Roosevelt's "race" beliefs were not unique in the 19th and early 20th century.[16][17][18][19][20] Professor Eric Kaufmann has suggested that American nativism has been explained primarily in psychological and economic terms to the neglect of a crucial cultural and ethnic dimension. Kauffman contends American nativism cannot be understood without reference to the theorem of the age that an "American" national ethnic group had taken shape prior to the large-scale immigration of the mid-19th century.[18]
"Nativism" gained its name from the "Native American" parties of the 1840s and 1850s.
Nativist outbursts occurred in the Northeast from the 1830s to the 1850s, primarily in response to a surge of Catholic immigration.[28] The Order of United American Mechanics was founded as a nativist fraternity, following the Philadelphia nativist riots of the preceding spring and summer, in December 1844.[29] The New York City anti-Irish, anti-German, and anti-Catholic secret society the Order of the Star Spangled Banner was formed in 1848.[30] Popularised nativist movements included the Know Nothing or American Party of the 1850s and the Immigration Restriction League of the 1890s.[31]
During the antebellum period (pre-Civil War), between 1830 and 1860, Americanism acquired a restrictive political meaning due to nativist moral panics.[32] Nativism would eventually influence Congress;[33] in 1924, legislation limiting immigration from Southern and Eastern European countries was ratified, also quantifying previous formal and informal anti-Asian previsions, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907.[34][35]
Modern usage
Statistical data
According to
According to
In the
In the
In the 2014
Academic analysis
Reynolds Farley writes that "we may now be in an era of optional ethnicity, in which no simple census question will distinguish those who identify strongly with a specific European group from those who report symbolic or imagined ethnicity."[37]
Stanley Lieberson and Mary C. Waters write "As whites become increasingly distant in generations and time from their immigrant ancestors, the tendency to distort, or remember selectively, one's ethnic origins increases.... [E]thnic categories are social phenomena that over the long run are constantly being redefined and reformulated."[39][45] Mary C. Waters contends that white Americans of European origin are afforded a wide range of choice: "In a sense, they are constantly given an actual choice—they can either identify themselves with their ethnic ancestry or they can 'melt' into the wider society and call themselves American."[46]
Professors Anthony Daniel Perez and Charles Hirschman write "European national origins are still common among whites—almost 3 of 5 whites name one or more European countries in response to the ancestry question. ... However, a significant share of whites respond that they are simply "American" or leave the ancestry question blank on their census forms. Ethnicity is receding from the consciousness of many white Americans. Because national origins do not count for very much in contemporary America, many whites are content with a simplified Americanized racial identity. The loss of specific ancestral attachments among many white Americans also results from high patterns of intermarriage and ethnic blending among whites of different European stocks."[8]
The response of American ancestry is addressed by the United States Census Bureau as follows:
Some people identify their ancestry as American. This could be because their ancestors have been in United States for so long or they have such mixed backgrounds that they do not identify with any particular group. Some foreign born or children of the foreign born may report American to show that they are part of American society. There are many reasons people may report their ancestors as American, and the growth in this response has been substantial.[47]
Genetics
A 2015 genetic study published in the
See also
- 19th-century Anglo-Saxonism
- Hyphenated American
- Historical racial and ethnic demographics of the United States
- Melting Pot
- Race and ethnicity in the United States
References
Citations
- ^ "IPUMS USA". University of Minnesota. Retrieved October 12, 2022.
- ^ a b c Ancestry: 2000 2004, p. 3
- ^ ISBN 978-0-521-82883-3.
- ISBN 978-1-285-41555-0.
- ISBN 978-0-299-16070-8.
- ^ Liz O'Connor, Gus Lubin and Dina Specto (2013). "The Largest Ancestry Groups in the United States - Business Insider". Businessinsider.com. Retrieved April 10, 2017.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-135-57878-7.
- ^ a b c Perez AD, Hirschman C. "The Changing Racial and Ethnic Composition of the US Population: Emerging American Identities". Population and Development Review. 2009;35(1):1-51. doi:10.1111/j.1728-4457.2009.00260.x.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8264-1643-8.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-59884-219-7.
- ^ Ancestry: 2000 2004, p. 6
- ISBN 978-1-4696-1658-2.
- ISBN 9780674157262.
To be or to become an American, a person did not have to be of any particular national, linguistic, religious, or ethnic background. All he had to do was to commit himself to the political ideology centered on the abstract ideals of liberty, equality, and republicanism. Thus the universalist ideological character of American nationality meant that it was open to anyone who willed to become an American.
- ^ a b c "American, n. and adj." (PDF). Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8071-1808-5.
- ISBN 978-0-674-03877-6.
- ISBN 978-0-8135-3123-6.
- ^ S2CID 145140497.
In the case of the United States, the national ethnic group was Anglo-American Protestant ("American"). This was the first European group to "imagine" the territory of the United States as its homeland and trace its genealogy back to New World colonists who rebelled against their mother country. In its mind, the American nation-state, its land, its history, its mission and its Anglo-American people were woven into one great tapestry of the imagination. This social construction considered the United States to be founded by the "Americans", who thereby had title to the land and the mandate to mould the nation (and any immigrants who might enter it) in their own Anglo-Saxon, Protestant self-image.
- ISBN 978-0-19-507233-4.
- ISBN 978-1-60938-093-9. Retrieved August 26, 2023.
- ISBN 978-1-285-19329-8.
- ISBN 978-1-4798-1452-7.
- ISBN 978-1-136-17603-6.
- ISBN 0-691-05015-5.
- ISBN 978-1-317-45791-6.
The upsurge of the faithful fueled bigotry among Americans who demonized cities and discounted foreigners, especially Catholics and Jews, as true citizens. Old stock American nativists feared that "papists"...
- ISBN 978-0-87289-320-7.
- ISBN 978-0-8135-3123-6. Retrieved 2023-04-29.
- ISBN 978-1-4408-0047-4.
- ISBN 978-1-136-17603-6.
- ISBN 978-0-19-508922-6.
- ISBN 978-0-19-508922-6.
- ISBN 978-0-7864-2785-7. Retrieved 2023-04-29.
- ISBN 978-0-19-508922-6.
- ISBN 978-0-231-52012-6.
- ISBN 978-1-61069-252-6.
- ISBN 978-1-4008-4679-5.
- ^ S2CID 41503995.
- .
- ^ S2CID 60711423.
- ^ a b Ancestry: 2000 2004, p. 7
- ISBN 978-1-4696-1658-2.
- ^ "Ancestry of the Population by State: 1980 - Table 3" (PDF). Census.gov. 2017.
- ^ a b Census Atlas of the United States (2013). "Ancestry" (PDF). Retrieved April 10, 2017.
- ^ "Selected Social Characteristics in the United States (DP02): 2014 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates". U.S. Census Bureau. Archived from the original on February 14, 2020. Retrieved November 10, 2016.
- .
- ISBN 978-0-520-07083-7.
- ^ "About Ancestry". Census.gov. 2021-12-03. Retrieved 2023-04-29.
- S2CID 3889161.
Sources
- "Ancestry: 2000 (Census 2000 Brief)" (PDF). U.S. Census Bureau. June 2004. Archived from the original(PDF) on December 4, 2004. Retrieved December 10, 2017.
- Farley, Reynolds (August 1991). "The New Census Question about Ancestry: What Did It Tell Us?". Demography. 28 (3): 411–429. S2CID 41503995.