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What is today called "Italy" was a bunch of different nation-states each with it's own culture.
My family history just in the State of Texas is older than the concept of Italy. We are a people that are from this nation, we have culture.
The United States is older than most countries, even some European countries (Germany is a much younger nation than U.S.A).
Political entities aren't cultures. The current nation of Italy did not create a new Italian culture, it inherited an ancient culture that existed long before it and will exist long after it disappears.
Also the concept of "Italy" goes back to the Roman times with the Province of Italia. The modern state of Italy matches the ancient province quite closely. So you are generally wrong on that account.
American culture on the other hands is practically new.
The only point being made is that there are American ethnic groups that are from the United States - we are the natives. People of recent immigrant origin are very different from us.
This differences can be startling. I went through this when I first moved to NYC where everybody is from some other country.
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And when do people stop being "Italian-Americans" and start just being Americans? Which Americans do you think need to be referenced with a hyphen and which do not?
That's for them to decide. Ethnogenesis usually takes a couple hundred years - who knows they might become something different, or blend in through intermarriage.
The only point being made is that there are American ethnic groups that are from the United States - we are the natives. People of recent immigrant origin are very different from us.
This differences can be startling. I went through this when I first moved to NYC where everybody is from some other country.
You aren't the Natives. The Natives are the Natives. You are part of the wave of new arrivals as far as they are concerned.
We aren't native to the continent. But we are the natives of this nation because we have been here since it was founded.
I'm not from any other country. This is where my family is from.
Just because your distant relative happened to be here when some other people formed a government doesn't grant some special connection to this "nation". You didn't inherit some special culture that pertains only to those who were here before 1776.
That's where you're totally wrong. Our culture is unique. It wasn't imported. It doesn't exist anywhere else in the world.
It wasn't imported? Where did the English language come from? All out customs and holidays trace back to somewhere else...American culture is an amalgamation of various imported cultures pressed together.
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Originally Posted by Tritone
Americans developed our own unique culture from Colonial times. It's 400 years old.
Compared to everywhere else 400 years is nothing. My families culture goes back thousands upon thousands of years.
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