An Exploration of Immigration Industrialization and Ethnicity in Waterville, Maine
Document Type Honors Thesis (Open Access)
Abstract
This paper is my attempt to both explore a very popular concept in Anthropology, that of ethnicity, and to write a history that has largely been forgotten and untold. I have been interested in the concept of ethnicity for a number of years, and as a student of anthropology my interest, intrigue, and confusion have only continued to grow. I have also always been a lover of history, and more recently I have come to realize the degree to which history is selectively written. I am interested in how histories are crafted and how history is remembered in the popular consciousness. It is a daily challenge to remember that both concepts of ethnicity and versions of history are fluid and not stable truths. While I began this thesis project with the hope that I would learn more about the town where I have lived for four years as a student and achieve a better grasp on how ethnic categories are devised, what emerges at the end as most important is the previously unwritten history that is being presented on these pages.