Mongrel
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Mongrel refers to mixed ancestry:
- Among pets, one whose parentage is of mixed breeds as opposed to purebred
- Among dogs, this is also called a mutt or a mixed-breed dog
- A mongrel cat is often referred to as a moggy
- For humans (often an insult) a description of a person's (genetic) heritage that is negative and meant as a demeaning label; someone of mixed ethnicities.
In his book Global Me G. Pascal Zackary suggests a new connotation for the word Mongrel:
- "Mongrel" must take on a new meaning that conveys the idea of positive, purposeful mixing -- a mixing that expands freedom while honoring the origins and preferences of those who mix. "Mongrel" also should not convey deracination, but the possibility of a rich specifically -- too rich to fit existing categories. Thus, the mongrel is the category breaker and the source of innovation, daring and toleration. "Mongrel" is a defiant, unapologetic label. It signals a declaration of solidarity with all outsiders; with all those who intermarry, migrate to another country; learn another language; adopt a new religion; display a new public persona while maintaining former ones. By calling oneself a mongrel, one sides with the shunned, the neglected, the over-looked the underdog. In this sense, mongrels are heroic. They have more perspective than the one-dimensional person and are more willing to rebel against tradition or question habitual ways of thinking and doing. Creativity, in the broadest sense, is part of the human condition. But in a world where tribes are increasingly in collision, mongrels can be more creative than supposed pure breeds. And as a result, mongrels aren't underdogs anymore.
References
- Zackary, G. Pascal. (2000). The Global Me: New Cosmopolitans and the Competitive Edge: Picking Globalism's Winners and Losers. PublicAffairs.