Gene specialists have found the origin of the main thrust of the Dutch population. In contrast to what I have always thought, and to what was in line with the scientific opinion on it, they do not descent from farmers, but mainly from hunters.
The back-trace of this historical revelation finds its root around 35.000 years ago, a period in which the hunters came to this part of the woods. Then, around 7.000 years ago, the net result of the influx (or static in-birth) of farmers made up approximately 20% of the population against 75% of the original hunter-gatherers. Yet eventually, the latter were able to turn a huge majority of roaming scavengers – the first – into docile land ploughing drudges.
Or were they…? Maybe it was something else that shook out the hunting lifestyle and replaced it by the Dutch love for turning soil.
In any case, I am not surprised. My double-cultured ethnic identity gives me an opinion on the Dutch, which is not necessarily positive at all times*. And that is putting it mildly. The new scientific findings about the origins of these authentic lowland dwellers still complies with the overall twerpy image that most exo-ethnic “Dutch” have of the Cheesheads. I have done some research on that myself, in a series of interviews I had to conduct for the purpose of data acquisition in a big social research project in Rotterdam. The people whom I interviewed were all first or second generation immigrants, many of them of non-European origin.
If I put these two sources of opinions on the Dutch together, my own as well as the one I acquired by research, I get a picture that paints a populace of tasteless, boring and pseudo tolerant peasants, who are not to be trusted by a long shot. Their loyalties lie with themselves and any temperamental step out of the Calvinistic line – one that prescribes blandness and boredom at all times – will result in one finger pointing at you and another one being wagged in your face.
Such is life in the ‘Neatherlands’. The problem lies in the two-tonguedness many fellow immigrants encounter, as they point out themselves. It is the most mentioned drawback I came across in my research and admittedly, it is a streak that is very hard to deal with.
It’s a pity, maybe, that the Hunter-gene has made way for the Yokel-attitude that is perceived by many of the ethnic non-Dutch. A little bit more spunk would have been nice in these NeatherLanders, and some good taste would be welcome too. It is not to be though. If a minority of clay-bums managed to turn over a majority of swift and ruthless meat chasers, there is no reason to have any hope on improvement in this department.
It took this country until the start of the crusades, which lies around the 1.100 CE mark, to come into contact with the real meaning of beauty and post medieval civilisation. The knights who went on their way to Palestine in order to commit their first genocides and other related atrocities, travelled through countries and cities that displayed a wealth of art and architecture to which the NeatherLanders had been oblivious until then. However, a real eye for the delights of life did not develop. But a serious(ly) fun-deprived lifestyle, fully in line with the teachings of John Calvin did.
*) I have an opinion on the Italians too, which you might find elswhere in this BLOG.
