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>I think that latitude and longitud are perfect, but, to define the >nationality of a scientist. For example, in my case I would rather >be define as English or Catalan, than British or Spanish. Nationality as Xavier Panades I Blas has defined it is mostly a Romantic notion. He himself is half Catalan and half English. I am 3/8 Irish, 3/8 French and 2/8 "Italian" (Barese, if you must know), but frankly my allegiances are to the state in which I was born (and I don't mean Massachusetts). Nationalities are historical artifacts, at best. It was initially pointed out that only a small number even have states. If you look to closely at apparently singular nationalities you will inevitably begin to see them begin to fragment. The Irish, for instance, represent a mixture of tribes that unified during the Middle Ages, in part as a result of Norse invasions. Speaking of the Norse, what about the people of Normandy; are they French? And what of Xavier Panades I Blas's "English" blood. Is there Norman ancestry there, or is it entirely Anglo-Saxon, a word that in itself represents the blending of two tribes. Nationalities, then, are too organic to be pinned down. To freeze their identities at a point in their history that suits you is where all the arguing starts (and never ends). The state is a construct of the Enlightenment and as such represents an attempt to free government from its slavery to history. It is far from a perfect idea, but it seems to work better than the old nation/tribe way of doing things. Once upon a time when the Scottish nation tried to break free of Great Britain, it caused the Jacobite Rebellion(S). But a couple of years ago the Scottish state simply formed their own parliament as a rather more civilized step toward independence from Great Britain. Bill -- ----------------------------------------------- William P. Chaisson Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences University of Rochester ph 585-275-0601 Rochester, New York 14627 USA fax 585-244-5689 http://www.earth.rochester.edu/chaisson/chaisson.html
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