ANST - Celtic "races"

[John Ruble]

Diarmuit wrote:
> You know, since the Celtic tribes who inhabited Gaul never actually
> left,
> it could be argued that the French, although they pronounce the word
> oddly,
> are *still* in fact "racially Celtic" (whatever the heck that means), 
> they just don't speak a Celtic language.  This does mean, however,
> that
> many people what Charlemagne ruled were, in fact, "Celtic".
> 
> It is a fallacy to suppose that all Celts were alike.
> 
> >The Romans left Britain after "600 AD or so"?
> 
> Officially, the Roman army abandoned Britain (I believe) in 430 CE,
> and
> many of the remaining "Romans" eventually wound up being pushed back 
> into Wales, while many, many others remained, once more having their 
> cultural heritages overwritten like a new file on an old disk ("once 
> more", since they were actually the tribes left over from before the 
> Romanization obscured their tribal distinctions, and the Roman army 
> worked to blot out their religious structure)), by the various Saxon 
> tribes.
> 
To expand what Diarmuit was saying, these La Tene peoples, the Celts,
were divided into Celtoi and Germani on the Roman maps, though they were
basically the same people to begin with.  In the Romanization of
northern Europe, units of conquered peoples were sent to widely
different parts of the empire as soldiers.  This kept them from aiding
their "oppressed" kindred in overthrowing the Romans.  The La Tene
culture of the Celtoi was injected with a lot of Roman ideas as well as
some genes from northern Africa, eastern Europe, etc. Add this up and
you get "Gaul".

The British Isles did not get as much of this, being a fringe of the
empire.  Ireland was probably the least affected.  But you could argue
that the Germani and the Irish were closer in culture than either were
to the Gauls.

By the time Charlemange came along,  the Franks were the remnants of the
warbands formed from the remnants of the Celtoi (and a few Germani),
mixed with much Roman culture and some various racial types from
anywhere the Romans every darkened the doorsteps.  The only place I can
think of that got more of a mix than this was England by the 1100's...


Ulf Gunnarsson
*---These are my opinions only, and not the opinions of my employers,
*---spouse, or family doctor.  So there.  Contents may settle during
*---shipping.  Send spelling complaints to ulf at urocor.com

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