Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

‘Viking’ was a job, not a matter of heredity: ancient DNA study (2020)

science.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 210 posts

Re: ‘Viking’ was a job, not a matter of heredity: ancient DNA study (2020)

#181

Post by bazoom42 »

acadapter wrote: post #26

It is linguistically possible that "viking" was simply a self-referential ethnonym, with the first part meaning "home" or "village". https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-Eur... Compare Ancient Greek [w]oikos, and all the various ves, vas, wieś, which can be found all over Eastern Europe.

Sounds rather far-fetched. “Viking” only started getting used as an ethonym in the 19th century. In the sagas it it only used in the meaning of raider, pirate or outlaw. The etymology of “vik” (bay) is much more plausible.

Re: ‘Viking’ was a job, not a matter of heredity: ancient DNA study (2020)

#182

Post by donkeybeer »

cess11 wrote: post #175
donkeybeer wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also funny things in black metal like American bands using german names, and yes often overlaps with white power stuff too. Norwegian or Swedish I can understand, a bit, as that was a key wave of black metal, but think what if a band that loved brazilian bm usee Portugese names (I do remember a band using spanish even though its members weren't latino but it does sound odd doesn't it?) And the funnier thing is, among…

Athros of quebecois black metal fame as a member of Forteresse also thought that was weird, he dropped out of Blutskrieg due to their overt nazism and perhaps even their use of english, to instead make a bit of a career out of french separatism.

I had no idea Athros had a similar thought, its hilarious and fun to see others noticed it too.

Re: ‘Viking’ was a job, not a matter of heredity: ancient DNA study (2020)

#183

Post by tmtvl »

lostlogin wrote: post #180
B1FF_PSUVM wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Farming is hard, let's go viking"

Farming in Scandinavia has got to be harder than farming somewhere further south. Maybe the climate and landscape turned them Viking?

'It is the great north wind that made the Vikings' as Will Antonio Zeppeli told Jonathan Joestar.

Re: ‘Viking’ was a job, not a matter of heredity: ancient DNA study (2020)

#184

Post by Throaway1982 »

samaltmanfried wrote: post #136
Throaway1982 wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really so its okay if a Canadian, Australian or New Zealander does it?

It wouldn't be. But they never do it, so I don't have to worry about it.

???? I live in Canada and people say this all the time. Always have.

Had a friend growing up from an Italian-German family. Ate schnitzel, watched soccer, corrected us on our pronunciation of 'pasta.' Didn't speak any language other than English and his parents were 2nd generation Canadians, who also spoke nothing but English.

My family came from Ukraine & Ireland 4 & 3 generations ago, respectively. Family gatherings always included halupschi, perogies, and Ukrainian pastries. Never spoke Ukrainian or heard any word of Ukrainian except for the names of the food & of some of my older relatives.

Can easily go on and on about the vast majority of people in Canada.

So I dont think you know what you're talking about.

Re: ‘Viking’ was a job, not a matter of heredity: ancient DNA study (2020)

#185

Post by Throaway1982 »

453yuh46 wrote: post #155
samaltmanfried wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm so glad someone brought this up. It irks me when I hear Americans detail every minor fraction of their genetic makeup: 1/4 Italian, 1/8 German, 1/16... etc. But they don't speak any of these languages, they've never even visited these countries. It's such a matter of pride for a lot of Americans, but it's just a costume. A quote I found here on HN, that I really liked: "Americans will say they are Italian because…

It seems, that people do not know that in USA there exists American ethnicity of relatively small population(for USA) - about 20 million that identifies themselves as Americans, so the quote is not correct. However large majority of Americans have background of immigrants and they have right to claim their ancestry(though DNA companies are selling them as ancestry lineage their relatedness, which is not the same). Yo…

Not to mention that it shows an extreme ignorance of the fact that USA & Canada are not 1000's of years old. Of course people have a tie to ancestors who came here a few generations ago, and brought aspects of their culture with them.

I find that Euros dont really know anything about the USA. Im Canadian and when I travel I routinely shock Europeans by reminding them that the USA is a huge country of over 300 million people. They seem to think its about the size of Britain.

Re: ‘Viking’ was a job, not a matter of heredity: ancient DNA study (2020)

#186

Post by Throaway1982 »

vintermann wrote: post #166
henrikschroder wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> those Europeans gatekeeping European ethnic identity No no no, no-one is gatekeeping ethnicity. If you have Irish heritage, you have Irish heritage. That's a fact. We're gatekeeping cultural identity and nationality, because these cosplaying Americans seem to think that their ethnicity confers culture and nationality by weird blood magic or something, and that's not how it works. > if we ask them if an African who…

It's not Americans doing these things. I've met plenty of Europeans with exotic identity claims, romanticizing some past culture instead of the living culture around them - Viking metal rather than folk music, to put it like that (there are also of course responsible ways to enjoy exotic metal genres). By making it into Americans vs. Europeans you're doing a bit of what you're criticizing yourself. Yeah sure, we all…

top post, end thread

Re: ‘Viking’ was a job, not a matter of heredity: ancient DNA study (2020)

#187

Post by Throaway1982 »

marcus_holmes wrote: post #139
henrikschroder wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The weirdest part is that they stop tracing back the second they hit someone interesting, as if nothing interesting happened before that person. If their great-great-grandfather was Scottish, they then assume everyone before him was 100% super duper Scottish, and that that has conferred "cultural traits" through some weird-ass blood magic or something. But Europeans are diverse mutts as well. I'm Swedish. But my last…

haha, great point about the language. An Irish friend of mine would speak Gaelic to any American he met who claimed to be Irish. Obviously none of them spoke the language, and he'd ask why not? Great question.

Wow. So I guess that the 60% of Ireland's population that don't speak any Gaelic are't Irish ether. And neither were the 94% that couldn't speak any (beyond "craic" & "uisce") 10 years ago. Please tell your friend that the majority of Ireland's population is English, not Irish. After all, if they were Irish, they'd speak the language, right? And not just in school when they're forced to.

WTF is wrong wth you people?

Re: ‘Viking’ was a job, not a matter of heredity: ancient DNA study (2020)

#188

Post by Throaway1982 »

henrikschroder wrote: post #168
_DeadFred_ wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Replying to ""Obviously none of them spoke the language, and he'd ask why not? Great question." with the reason is straw manning? Don't worry long ago I had my naivety removed by folks like you and no longer feel any fondness or interest for ireland or irishness, and passed none of it down to my kids. Ireland has never been brought up for a vacation destination where as I convinced my mom to gift me a trip to all of…

"Fine, I won't connect then!1!!" What's wrong with you, you're responding to literally the opposite of what I said? You are free to connect, to seek your roots, figure out weird quirky things from the culture of your ancestors, and nurture as much fondness for Ireland and Irishness as you please. No-one in Ireland (Note, I'm not Irish!!) is gonna object to any of that. The one thing, the ONE FUCKING THING we're askin…

Dude. The vast majority of Irish people can't speak a word of Gaelic. 10 years ago when I went to Ireland, the bilingual population was 0.1%!!!!! How many people use Gaelic in their daily life in Ireland? Less than 100 000. Guess the rest of you are just English, pretending to be Irish, eating fish & chips & going to Tesco's...

The only thing I ever heard from Irish people that they hated about being "Irish-American" was the idea that Ireland was a magical pixie world full of leprechauns and gold.

Re: ‘Viking’ was a job, not a matter of heredity: ancient DNA study (2020)

#189

Post by giraffe_lady »

bazoom42 wrote: post #113
nillkiggers1488 wrote: post #87

[flagged]

If you are referring to the “Vikings”-show, you should be aware it is fiction and the roles sadly are played by professional actors, not genuine vikings.

Look at that user's handle please.

Re: ‘Viking’ was a job, not a matter of heredity: ancient DNA study (2020)

#190

Post by Throaway1982 »

lo_zamoyski wrote: post #134
troosevelt wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might usually manfiest as that or you're picking out the most superficial parts of people's identity to criticize. It's just not how I and others view it when we think about where the people who made us come from. Or, to put it another way: your criticism is tacky and vulgar. Perhaps what you're describing is "cosplaying" but that's not how immigrant communities see themselves. I do in fact know the perecentages o…

> that's not how immigrant communities see themselves. Whoa, who's talking about immigrant families? Immigrant families came from somewhere else. That's their identity, because it's where they came from. But if your family has been here for a few generations, then I have news for you: you're not immigrants! > I do in fact know the perecentages of my national makeup. Nobles know their ancestry down to the smallest det…

The percentages come from their ancestry (their GRANDPARENTS), not culture.
Post reply on HN