Not many U.S. Wizards

[Milz]

No: HPFGUIDX 27205

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., fourfuries at a... wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., blpurdom at y... wrote:
> > I agree that Elfreth's Alley would make an excellent portal for 
the 
> > Philadelphia wizarding "shopping district," but there is probably 
> > an equivalent of Diagon Alley in most cities in the US.  
> 
> I beg to differ.  If Diagon Alley serves the entire British Isles 
(or 
> even just the Island of England) and Hogsmeade is the only all 
> wizarding village in the U.K., then the liklihood of a wizarding 
> district in "most cities in the U. S." is very small.  It is far 
more 
> likely that U.S. wizards make up a small percentage of the total 
U.S. 
> population.
> 

This I do agree with you to a point. Due to the geographic size of 
the US, the wizarding population is most likely spread out around the 
country, but concentrated around major cities. I'm more inclined to 
think that most major cities have port-keys that transport witches 
and wizards to the Magic Mall of America (wherever that might be 
located, probably in Minnesota next to the Mall of America).

> In fact it is probable that U.S. Wizards comprise a smaller 
> percentage of the U.S. population than wizards comprise of the 
> European nations.  If wizarding is passed down both as a 
science/art 
> and as a genetic disposition, it is easy to predict that the U.S., 
as 
> a realtively new nation lacking a wizarding tradition and being 
> notoriously hostile to the emergence of witchcraft, would have seen 
a 
> precipitious decrease in the wizarding passed on from generation to 
> generation.
> 
> Consider that American Indian shaman were generally only one per 
> tribe atmost, and they were mostly killed off along with the rest 
of 
> aboriginal culture.  Or how about the Salem withch trials, which 
> certainly drove magicking further underground, regardless of 
whether 
> the burnings at the stake tickled, or whether gillyweed and bubble 
> head charms were readily available to witches subjected to ritual 
> drowning.
> 

Again, most ethnic groups can be used as a relatively good example. 
Most likely, there are Irish-American, German-American, Spanish-
American, Tahitian-American, etc. witches and wizards who emigrated 
to the US and keep some of their ethnic magical traditions and have 
incorporated them into the American tradition. Just like the 4th 
generation Italian-American family who serves pasta fagioli at 
Thanksgiving along with the turkey and other 'traditional' foods. 
Ethnic traditions are usually orally hand down from one generation to 
the next. Even in some of the remaining Native American cultures, the 
shaman still exists.

> Further, and despite what the supremacists delude themselves into 
> believing, the American racial stew is so thouroughly mixed, the 
> bloodlines for a trait like wizard-ability must be awfully 
muddied.  
> Black, White, Indian, Irish, Mexican, etc., etc. etc.  How is any 
> gene supposed to pass from generation to generation in such an 
> intermingled environment?
> 

I can see your point, if you're assuming ethnic groups, like the 
Blacks, Indians, Irish, Mexican, et al. do not have the wizard gene, 
so intermarriage with any of these groups will dillute the magic gene 
pool. But if these groups DO have the wizard gene then American 
magical community, then I can't really see how intermarriage will 
adversely affect the magic gene pool. In fact the American magical 
community might be even more powerful than the non-mixed magicals due 
to something called 'polymorphism' or 'polygenic factors', which 
might potentiate the latent ability of the gene. Generally, the 
dominant genes are lethal to a species. It's the recessive genes that 
temper these lethal dominant ones. 

> This goes part and parcel with my final point.  Wizarding is 
conrary 
> to the American ideal.  In wizarding, all men are not created 
equal.  
> There are greater and lesser talents, and some have no talent at 
> all.  There is not even the illusion of equality, as old line 
> families denigrate the lineage of mudbloods who struggle with their 
> muggle relatives over the meaning of this blessing/curse.  

I'm not a lawyer, but from what I understand, the 'created equal' bit 
refers to equality under the law/government; I don't think it means 
the pan-equality of every talent or aptitude. 

>Americans, 
> having little sense of or use for tradition, prefer technology, 
> science, motor cars and such. They have no use for things that can 
> not be taken apart.  It is exactly why we continue to parse thiese 
> books.
> 

I think you're stereotyping a little too much here.  

> The British, on the other hand, have magic as a part of their 
> national history.  Arthur would not have been king but for a wizard 
> named Merlin and an enchanted sword and stone.  The Druids were up 
to 
> something at Stonehenge, the evidence of which still stands.  The 
> very oldness of the land, the mysterious topography, its cold 
climate 
> and ageless traditions all support the propagation of the magical 
> arts in ways that the shiny new America can never hope to compete.
>

Again, if America were a closed society devoid of immigration past 
and present, then I can see your point, but America is a nation of 
immigrants with a constant cultural influx of ideas and traditions. 
The American culture incorporates "old-world" traditions.