Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America: VOLUME I (America: A Cultural History)

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It puts every state over the two principal components, and we see a broad curve from New England to the everywhere else and America, to the South with New Mexico, Hawai’i, and Lousiana as outliers. Confirming, roughly, that the big split is between north and south, with most of the USA as a mixture of the two. On the other hand, according to Boorstin (1958), the Puritans were completely non- utopian and practical in the way they lived their daily lives. Because they considered their theological questions answered, says Boorstin, they could focus less on the ends of society and more on the practical means for making society work effectively. Eventually, historical circumstances would even sweep the religious authoritarianism away, leaving behind a legacy self-government, local control, and direct democrac y.

Naming Ways: "Onomastic customs including favoured forenames and the descent of names within the family."Then there are some other clusters: the amish, mormons, appalachians, who seem to have high admixture but remain distinct (?). Cousin marriage was an important custom that helped cement bonds among the Virginian elite, “and many an Anglican lady changed her condition but not her name”. Throughout his three decades in North America, Champlain remained committed to a remarkable vision, a Grand Design for France’s colony. He encouraged intermarriage among the French colonists and the natives, and he insisted on tolerance for Protestants. He was a visionary leader, especially when compared to his English and Spanish contemporaries—a man who dreamed of humanity and peace in a world of cruelty and violence.

John Adams’ male line name came from the village of Braintree in England, which is east of the U. of Cambridge.

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The Quakers’ marriage customs combined a surprisingly modern ideas of romance, with extreme bureaucracy. The wedding process itself had sixteen stages, including “ask parents”, “ask community women”, “ask community men”, “community women ask parents”, and “obtain a certificate of cleanliness”. William Penn’s marriage apparently had forty-six witnesses to testify to the good conduct and non-relatedness of both parties.