In the fall of 1993, some undergraduates in South Carolina were kind enough to fill out
a questionnaire designed to characterize the Scotch Irish. This essay is an attempt to
summarize the results. There are five parts. Since the questions involved raise some
fundamental issues about what humans are like, the first section
is devoted to a plea to suspend judgement on things like better and worse and to accept
the notion that people are different from each other. The second
section is technical and describes something about blood types and the implications of
what differences in blood types may have done during the experience of human history. The third section describes what is already well known about the ancient
inhabitants of Britain. The fourth section describes the
questionnaire. The last section gives the results.
I express my deepest gratitude to those who have participated. Without their trust and
good will, this would not have been possible. I hope my modest efforts are a token for
what they have done.
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