Honoring Ancestors?

    These weeks in Quebec there is quite a bit of fuss about the reenactment of the Plaines d'Abraham battle. Some people claim that their ancestors lost the battle and how it is a shame to them. What is interesting is that this battle occurred in 1759. It opposed French colonists to English colonists with quite a few other factions in between. The English won and Quebecers who feel kinship with the French feel that it was their defeat, those of their ancestors. If you think about it, all ideas of ancestry going back that far are ridiculous. Humans, by nature, will try reproduce with everything they can find. The English winners of the battle did produce offsprings that mingled and survived to this day. There is not such a thing as a purebred (and it can be said that there has never been in the past) and we can safely assume that everyone who has ancestors that fought in the Battle of Quebec has them on both sides of the war.

    The same is true for the Haitian War of Independence of the late 1700s, early 1800s. As far as I'm concerned, my ancestors enslaved my ancestors who rebelled and killed all of my ancestors, claiming their independence from the country of my ancestors. Again, this is ridiculous. The reason people look at only one set of ancestors is simply because they do not associate with blood but with easy to recognize characteristics such as language (like in Quebec) or skin color (in Haiti). It is a very simplistic way to view the past world and as we see with feuds, something that can actually be very destructive.

    I, for one, think that we can learn a lot from the people that came before us but that is it. They are not linked to us in ideas or reality and we shouldn't automatically assume that their battles are relevant to us.