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Does anyone else identify with a culture due to upbringing that doesn't show up significantly on an ancestry test? (thelemmy.club)

submitted 17 hours ago by may_be@thelemmy.club to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

17 comments fedilink hide all child comments

For example, I'm like 0.01% Senegalese or something, but I wasn't raised by Senegalese people or by the culture, nor do I consider the percentage to be significant enough, so I would not consider myself to be Senegalese.

My dad says our ancestry test used to say he was ~48-50% Norwegian, but now my ancestry says it is around 3-4%. However, another test I paid for with my raw data detected Swedish ancestry around 22%. We were raised more with Norwegian stuff and Norwegian learning videos, though, so I consider myself and my dad Norwegian-American for sure, no matter what it says on the ancestry test because 1) IDK how true, but I heard ancestry tests can be bullshit and just estimate from regions. 2) Culture and identity is more than just a number percentage on a test. 🇳🇴🇳🇴🇳🇴

Hilsen fra en norskamerikaner!

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[–] adb@lemmy.ml 7 points 17 hours ago (3 children)

Culture and identity has little to do with ancestry or actual ethnicity. It’s strongly correlated but ultimately we are what we were raised to be.

[–] may_be@thelemmy.club 2 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Thank you. A lot of people (not on Lemmy) have just made fun of me for identifying as American with Norwegian roots. It's not like I said I was more Norwegian than Norwegians born in Norway though or said I was just American and couldn't be Norwegian-American

[–] huf@hexbear.net 2 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

the thing is, how does this norwegian background actually affect your day to day life? do you speak norwegian? do you follow norwegian politics? do you eat norwegian dishes? decorate your home like a norwegian (whatever that might be)?

cos like, tons of people in europe have ancestry from other european countries but pretty much nobody keeps track of it. eg, a hungarian with of slovak or german ancestry (there are literally millions of them) would not consider themselves to be a slovak or a german at all. not even a hungarian-slovak or whatever.

this is generally why europeans are puzzled by the white hyphenated americans.

[–] may_be@thelemmy.club 2 points 3 hours ago

Ohhhhh, I understand now. That makes sense

[–] may_be@thelemmy.club 1 points 3 hours ago

If someone asks what ancestry or culture, I might say Norwegian-American to an American, but I don’t consider myself a true Norwegian Norwegian so I would just say American unless that happens

[–] may_be@thelemmy.club 1 points 16 hours ago

I am an American however, through and through and have my own distinct culture from a Norwegian-raised person

[–] may_be@thelemmy.club 1 points 17 hours ago

Happy cake day!!