Reclaimed Identity: Heritage and Genealogy of the Lithuanian Immigrants in Texas
Volume 19 (2009): Studia Anthropologica, III: Identity Politics: Histories, Regions and Borderlands, pp. 79–91
Pub. online: 15 October 2009
Type: Article
Open Access
Published
15 October 2009
15 October 2009
Abstract
The article aims at delineating particular shape of identity used among those contemporary Texans who are descendants of the Lithuanian immigrants of one hundred and fifty years ago. It is argued that such an identity can be understood as traced, evoked and reclaimed, as well as based on local heritage and genealogy and thus local rather than ethnic. What is important for the modern ethnic (or post-ethnic) identity of the Texan Americans of Lithuanian descent is not the traditional criteria of ethnicity (such as language retention or endogamy), but rather recent histories, compiled via the internet, and recently constructed or even invented symbols and narratives of ethnic belonging. The historical marker for ‘Lithuanians in Texas’ and also narratives of the ethnic pride on ‘Lithuanians as Texas pioneers’ are among the examples of that.