Heritage
Heritage
1.
property that is or may be inherited; an inheritance.
"they had stolen his grandfather's heritage"
2.
ARCHAIC
a special or individual possession; an allotted portion.
"God's love remains your heritage"
Hands up who thought the definition would have more to say about where you as a human 'came from'? I certainly did. Apparently not.
I was going to share the whole story of how, although I spent my life believing I was a pretty standard, half and half mix of Jamaican and English, then talk about how after a DNA Test; I found out that’s not true at all.
I’d then tell you I’m actually 0.0% English and barely Jamaican, go on to discuss how ‘heritage is weird and you never really know who you are etc etc’ but now, after seeing the exact definition of my chosen title, that story doesn’t really seem to fit. And I’m rethinking my whole view of the word. Cool.
So, a brief look to the definition of heritage. Seems straightforward enough to me, but it feels like it only talks about the material in the modern definition. Things. Stuff your folks passed on if they were fortunate enough to have anything left to give at the end of their life.
What happens if those who raised you have nothing material to pass on? And what happened to the ‘archaic’ view of the word?
How and why has it evolved from meaning something that you inherently possess within, such as love, into meaning property gained through inheritance?
A big question and it feels like I’ve opened a door I was slightly unprepared for here, so I’m going to ponder more and maybe update how I feel about it later.
I’ll leave you with my ‘ethnicity estimate' numbers for now and write about where tf I’m from in another post <3
Balkan 4.4%
West African 5.3%
East European 5.9%
Kenyan 6.7%
Nigerian 25.2%
Irish, Scottish and Welsh, 25.9%
North and West European 26.6%
