Looking for a culture
Posted by Known_Juggernaut3625@reddit | AskBalkans | View on Reddit | 58 comments
A few years back, I did one of those DNA tests. The result was that I was 45% Balkan. No one in my family ever discussed any Balkan roots. Most of my friends are from ethnic backgrounds with rich tradition and heritage. It makes me want to explore my Balkan history and to kind of adopt the culture. However, my research has overwhelmed me with the huge number of differences among Balkan people. Where do I start?
rintzscar@reddit
Start with the realization that ethnicity, culture, history, etc. is not inherited through DNA. You're not a Balkan person; you are whatever ethnicity you are. Judging by your post history - probably American.
Known_Juggernaut3625@reddit (OP)
yes, second generation born in America -grandfather left Ukraine during the Bolshevik revolution. Over a few centuries went from Switzerland to Germany to Ukraine, back to Switzerland then to the US.
User20242024@reddit
Well, if your ancestors are from Ukraine, then your ancestry might be most likely related to Romanian, since they are Balkan ethnicity which is closest to Ukraine.
Observe_Report_@reddit
“And I’m proud to be an American where at least I know I’m free” Lee Greenwood
BankBackground2496@reddit
Are you white by any chance?
Observe_Report_@reddit
Yes sir
rintzscar@reddit
See this for a reality check:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oyKVAjISmI
Observe_Report_@reddit
You assumed that I posted those lyrics as a boast, I did not.
rintzscar@reddit
In which case, watch the clip for fun.
Leontopod1um@reddit
Gross is not fun.
Observe_Report_@reddit
I will
No_Slide5742@reddit
McDonald's (Fuck yeah!)
Walmart (Fuck yeah!)
The Gap (Fuck yeah!)
Baseball (Fuck yeah!)
NFL (Fuck yeah!)
Rock and roll (Fuck yeah!)
The Internet (Fuck yeah!)
Slavery (Fuck yeah!)
Observe_Report_@reddit
Again, you are also assuming that I posted these lyrics as a boast, I did not. Those lyrics are laughable, I believe the sarcasm was lost in translation. I would have to disagree with your artificial country comment though, also you are from Turkey and I am Albanian, so I have a built-in trigger towards people like you. I’m not a big fan of your centuries long occupation and the backwardness you imposed on my people.
No_Slide5742@reddit
it's from a (satirical) movie
i think that has less to do with you being albanian, and more to do with you being a redditor. all the albanians i've met (admittedly not many, but still) irl were islamists lol.
Observe_Report_@reddit
I forgot to comment on your satirical movie BS, Team America is a classic, but you negate your satirical take with your nasty comments afterwards.
Observe_Report_@reddit
I’m Catholic and I would not want to have anything to do with the people you referenced, and you are incorrect, Turks trigger me, I guess I have inherited trauma.
Stelist_Knicks@reddit
Every ethnic background is rich with tradition and history. But regardless, what do you mean by adopt the culture? Sounds a bit weird ngl.
My mums side is from the northern corner of Moldova. They all have Romanian last names. If I do a DNA test and find out her side actually has a lot of Russian or Ukrainian blood. I am not gonna want to adopt Ukrainian culture lmao. They're as Romanian as it gets.
Regardless, Balkans is a fairly vague term. There are like a dozen countries you can be from. Try checking your family tree. Perhaps, if you have a few last names you can track down (your parents, grandparents, etc), go on forebears.io - there you can track down where the last name comes from more accurately. Sometimes you can even pinpoint the county (not country, county) it's most popular in.
No_Slide5742@reddit
yeah americans look at everything from a racial/genetic point of view, it's really weird.
Stelist_Knicks@reddit
Canadians too. Like I've met a Canadian who had a Romanian last name. Called themselves Romanian. But their Romanian descendants came from like the 1800s. Didn't speak a lick of Romanian either.
Like? Bruh lmao
I feel for Italians in Italy who have to deal with Italian Americans.
_whatever_idc@reddit
Italian Americans be like:
Careful-Evening-5187@reddit
gabagoo
_whatever_idc@reddit
Ooooooh
Leshkarenzi@reddit
BankBackground2496@reddit
Haha, see this White Lotus scene https://www.tiktok.com/@binge/video/7387942091692756242?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=mobile&sender_web_id=7485148478549755399
Known_Juggernaut3625@reddit (OP)
I think it's weird too. To me it seems that America has no depth of tradition. What do we pass to our children? - traditions of watching tv, eating fast food, shopping online? It kind of leaves one feeling shallow and without any roots.
Stelist_Knicks@reddit
We aren't that different broski. We do the same thing. Only thing is, Balkan people just have this fun egg game they play on Easter.
We have our own arts too. That sometimes you see hanging around the house. But Europe as a whole is VERY westernized. Don't go into the Balkans expecting something different or a huge culture shock.
Known_Juggernaut3625@reddit (OP)
Yes, I should know better - I've been to Romania (Brasov) - it was quite western and even somewhat posh.
sjedinjenoStanje@reddit
Why is it so hard to understand that people in melting-pot countries are still interested in their heritage even if it's generations after the move across an ocean? Genetics has nothing to do with it, and neither does race (which really means continent of origin).
No_Slide5742@reddit
turkey is a melting pot country, i am a mix of greek, armenian, kurd, hittite, south slavic etc. can't say i care much about any of those lol
sjedinjenoStanje@reddit
OK that's you, and it's your whole country that's a blend of all these different nations. Americans/Canadians/Aussies/Kiwis have different heritages from family to family.
I will add that, contrary to stereotype, the further a person is from their heritage in terms of generations, generally the less they are interested/engaged with that heritage. I'm the child of immigrants so I still have family in the old countries that know my parents, I've visited, I speak the language, etc. But I have a friend who has an Irish last name because her great-great-grandfather on her father's side was from Ireland. She doesn't really relate to her Irish heritage at all and just considers it a bit of family lore.
Stelist_Knicks@reddit
So do the Balkans lmao. Pretty much every Romanian will tell you something like oh I have a small amount of Hungarian blood, or Saxon blood, or Russian blood, etc. Sometimes they overloop. Sometimes not. Humans migrate. America isn't unique in that regard.
What America is unique in is that their heritage is fairly new. While all our Balkan countries are relatively new. People have been speaking the language for centuries, far before the Americans have spoken English.
I lived in Canada for most of my life. The way Canadians and Americans speak about their heritage is sometimes weird. Like only because you're 4 generations removed italian. It doesn't make you Italian. I explictly remember my mom being disappointed that most Italian restaurants and people in Canada didn't speak Italian (she lived in Italy before she gave birth to me).
This is the same type of broken logic that could lead to very dangerous precedents
sjedinjenoStanje@reddit
Yes...that's why I said Canadians, Aussies and Kiwis in the same breath!
Sure, there can be a little mixing esp along borders in nation-states, but until very recently, you wouldn't find, say, Greek-Japanese (one of my best friends), Armenian-Croatian (me), Filipino-Italian-Japanese-Irish (my first boyfriend, one grandparent of each lol) or Peruvian-Vietnamese (college acquaintance) people outside melting-pot countries.
Yes, those hoping to find European ethnic purity past the first generation in a melting pot is going to be sorely disappointed lol.
Stelist_Knicks@reddit
Anglo sphere. Tomato tomato. Whatever lmao. We can even include the UK and France if we wanted to tbh
Yeah. These are cross continental. That's why they're 'unique' I suppose.
Even those in Europe hoping to find ethnic purity will be disappointed. It's a dumbass concept. Some neo Nazis fr think they're 100% pure bred white. Who cares?
It seems like you and I would probably agree on a lot of things. I just think a lot of this culture hunting from the Anglo sphere is just kinda cringe. If your parents are FOTB/First generation immigrants, I get it. But once we start talking about great grand parents... Like c'mon lmao.
sjedinjenoStanje@reddit
I hear you, although in my experience it's pretty rare. We all know that British people react strongly to the concept of a proud 17th-generation Irish-American, but they tend to be a tiny exception.
Stelist_Knicks@reddit
Nah dude it's super common. I lived most of my life in Canada. Italian Canadians, Greek Canadians, and Portuguese Canadians do that stuff all the time. German Canadians, French Canadians, and Scandinavian Canadians don't do it tho.
Balkan Canadians are usually more FOTB though. So I give them more of a pass.
Tiny-Mulberry-2114@reddit
Not all Balkan countries share the same culture, so I suggest you start by building a family tree and narrowing down where your family actually came from. Once you locate your village or city, look through church records to find your ancestors, and perhaps you'll discover more information from there.
Some church records, along with other documents like war draft papers, are available online, while others may require you to visit in person unless they have been destroyed or damaged over the years.
Kitsooos@reddit
As far as i know, mosques don't keep as detailed records as churches do.
So if his family is from a muslim village/town, this might not help much.
Tiny-Mulberry-2114@reddit
True if that's the case it will be a lot harder. However there is still some documents that could be find online on when his family arrived in the US. I know when I searched similar documents there were a lot of info that I found regarding my ancestor when he arrived at a port in America.
Known_Juggernaut3625@reddit (OP)
My father's side is well researched to Switzerland in the 1500s. However, my mom's side seems to have the Balkan part and they don't seem to have any record or stories. They have just always said they're German and leave it at that.
Tiny-Mulberry-2114@reddit
I'm taking a wild guess here, but your family might be Banat Swabians. After World War II, many Germans either fled or were expelled from countries affected by the war, including some Balkan countries.
This is the best I can do to narrow it down, but it's hard to believe that absolutely no one on your mom's side of the family has even a rough idea of where you came from. Any old document you find or obtain from your family members could be very helpful, even if they don’t know much themselves or simply aren’t interested enough to do the research.
Known_Juggernaut3625@reddit (OP)
I think when my ancestors moved into a German community in Ukraine, they did their best to assimilate. When the Germans left to go to the US, they did the same and moved to US as Germans. They also lived among German speaking people in a small US town. None of them looked like typical Germans - many were of dark complexion and very black hair.
Tiny-Mulberry-2114@reddit
Great that's already a lot of info that you can use to find them. Be sure to write everything you hear from your living family members about your ancestors and use that information to further research where they came from.
That small US town will make it easier to find documents where it might be written where they were born and when or which country they were born in. There has to be some records either in old Immigration files, church files or some other municipal documents. When I was looking into my great grandfather it was enough that I typed in his surname into this one site (familysearch.org) and a lot of documents where there for me to analyze.
Kitsooos@reddit
I mean bro you basically have nothing. What language did they speak? What was their faith?
The Balkans are not a single entity ethnoreligiously.
If you don't even know that, then your task is pretty much impossible.
shqipe81@reddit
Which part of the balkans?
Be proud of your heritage; explore the cuisine/language and start to research history and traditions.
Welcome❤️
Known_Juggernaut3625@reddit (OP)
Thanks - Some family were from Ukraine near the border with Romania and one seems to have been from the coast of Croatia near Split - not a lot to go on.
shqipe81@reddit
You know more than others. Croatia/Ukraine. If you can find any family or even travel to these countries; when situation is not as volatile in Ukraine🙏
I disagree with those above who don't associate genetics with identity; particularly 45% ~ knowing where we come from is important.
Start with restaurants/markets dedicated to balkans or cook some recipes, and of course: rakija🥃
Known_Juggernaut3625@reddit (OP)
maybe I'll start with rakija!
faramaobscena@reddit
I have your DNA test, it says you are American.
Known_Juggernaut3625@reddit (OP)
great! thanks a lot! ......by the way, who did you buy it from?
BankBackground2496@reddit
Unless you can track one of your ancestors that % means nothing.
My son has 9% North African DNA, I have 5% and my wife has none. What does it mean? Nothing.
You are linked to the place you grew up, having someone's DNA does not connect you to the place they grew up in.
If you really want to do something about it learn how to play backgammon.
Glatzial@reddit
Start drinking rakia heavily, the rest will follow on it's own.
Known_Juggernaut3625@reddit (OP)
Thank you - that's a good start..........maybe my end too!
Vdd666@reddit
Don't larp, you are what you are.
Careful-Evening-5187@reddit
I see you haven't visited many anime cons.....
LustrousOuroboros@reddit
Wut?!
Hear this person the Balkans have no rich heritage and culture. :))))))))))))))
Balkans where exactly? Because Romania is different from Greece, Croatia is different from Albania, Serbia is different from Bulgaria, even the North Macedonia slightly differs from Greece and Bulgaria - Bulgarians, Greeks don't kill me for this!
Just because the Balkans aren't as talked about as France, Germany, England, Italy, Spain it doesn't means those countries are some blank specs of dust that came into being yesterday. Hell Greece a country from the Balkans, is the mother of so many things.
Europe is diverse not like USA where 50 countries function like a single one, the Balkans are diverse.
Balkans is a region full of countries with rich histories, culture, traditions, an area that survived the Ottoman and Russian imperialist "militaristic tourisms" and forced assimilation.
You can't really adopt a culture, you'd be a walking meme if you go around behaving like the stereotypical balkan you see on social media. You can check out Living Ironically in Europe - his channels discusses Balkan history, culture and languages in a fun way.
Imaginary_String_814@reddit
Most of my friends are from ethnic backgrounds with rich tradition and heritage. What does that even mean ?
first you should get education since there is no general balkan culture.
rakijautd@reddit
Everyone is from an ethnic background, as everyone belongs to a certain ethnicity by parental line. Every ethnicity has a rich heritage.
If you are completely cut off from your ancestor's ethnicity, that means that someone along your ancestry line adopted another (I will assume you are now American or Canadian, as they are fairly new cultures and identities).
If you would want to figure out what was the ethnicity of some of your Balkan ancestor, then one of them must have had a Balkan last name. Alternatively, it could be completely possible that many people along your paternal line who is not from here originally, married a bunch of women from the area.
Additionally DNA plays basically no role in identity, as can be quite obvious especially from the example of the Balkans, where people with similar DNA can be completely different ethnicities, while those with different DNA can be the same one. This region had a turbulent past, and a bunch of ethno-linguistic groups have traversed it, conquered it, settled it, migrated to, and so on.
ComprehensiveTax7@reddit
As a non balkan person, I would recommend to go deeper as to which balkan country are your ancestors from. Quite big cultural differences based on religion, language, etc.
But, if you can't for some reason, focus on food.
In my opion the whole balkans (and turkey and also lebanon and izrael) make the best grilled meats in the world for some reason.
The fresh and juicy veggies available on demand, amazing jogurts.
And then you go deeper to regional variations (which are also substantial).