ETA2: as part of my attempt to get out from under simplified-US understanding... is it true that the Welsh are considered an indigenous population, or at least treated as (somewhat?) racially distinct from Anglo-Saxon, by most Brits? Just curious.
Um, no? I'm not as qualified as others may be to talk about the Welsh situation, but I can certainly talk about the Irish one. In terms of culture, national identity and ethnicity, then yes Irish people are certainly distinct from white English of Anglo-Saxon decent, but racially ... that's a lot more difficult. Certain physical characteristics are more common (the combination of pale skin, brown hair and light eyes, for instance; "approximately 42% of the Irish population have pure blue eyes. Another 30% have been found to possess light-mixed eyes and less than 1 half of 1% have pure brown" according to a 1940s survey) but in terms of race - being able to visually identify someone as being part of an ethnic group - nah.
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Date: 15 May 2010 09:05 pm (UTC)Um, no? I'm not as qualified as others may be to talk about the Welsh situation, but I can certainly talk about the Irish one. In terms of culture, national identity and ethnicity, then yes Irish people are certainly distinct from white English of Anglo-Saxon decent, but racially ... that's a lot more difficult. Certain physical characteristics are more common (the combination of pale skin, brown hair and light eyes, for instance; "approximately 42% of the Irish population have pure blue eyes. Another 30% have been found to possess light-mixed eyes and less than 1 half of 1% have pure brown" according to a 1940s survey) but in terms of race - being able to visually identify someone as being part of an ethnic group - nah.