Anglo-Celtic Australian
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Anglo-Saxon Australian or Anglo-Celtic Australian is an ethnic or cultural category, used to describe the majority of white Australians.
The term is sometimes used interchangeably with the terms Australian or "Aussie", particularly by young people, when "Aussie" is used in an ethnic context.
Although the vast majority of the population has origins in the British isles, by the time of the 2001 Census of Australia, a large portion of Australians were referring to their ethnicity as simply, "Australian", rather than "British", which could also be deemed accurate.
Anglo-Celtic Australian is a broader term than "Anglo-Saxon" Australian, which anachronistically refers to people of English descent, and recognises both the cultural fusion of early Australian settler society and the resultant large demographic role of people who are of Irish, Scottish, Welsh, English, Cornish and Manx ethnic backgrounds. It is common for a white Australian to have an ancestor from two or more British or Irish cultures.
Anglo-Celtic Australian is often an inaccurate synonym for "Anglo Australian" — that is, an Australian of English heritage. Some believe this is permissible because those regarded as Celtic peoples are perceived to be, by and large, English-speaking. "Anglo Australian" was used extensively in Australian media reports of the Cronulla riots in December 2005, despite the fact that many of the participants had non-English names.
It is also common for Australians of other northwestern European backgrounds (particularly Dutch, German and Scandinavian) to be labelled "Anglo-Celtic" based on physical appearance, following the U.S. convention of describing all people who are white and anglophonic as "Anglo", regardless of whether or not they have English ancestry.
Anglo-Celtic Australian does not carry any religious connotations. A relatively large proportion of Anglo-Celts have connections to Protestant or Catholic Christian denominations. However, many Anglo-Celtic Australians are agnostic or atheist. According to sociologist Adam Jamrozik, this is because the term "is of recent coinage and only started to have meaning after the sectarian conflicts between Irish Catholics and British Protestants lost salience - perhaps partly in the face of large scale non-British immigration, which produced another outgroup of “New Australians”."[1][2]
[edit] References
- ^ http://larvatusprodeo.net/2005/04/26/anglo-celts/
- ^ Adam Jamrozik, "The Chains of Colonial Inheritance: Searching for Identity in a Subservient Nation", UNSW Press: Sydney, 2004
