ETHNIC FOODWAYS IN EVERYDAY LIFE : CREATIVITY AND CHANGE AMONG CONTEMPORARY MINNESOTANS.

Format:

Book

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Kaplan, Anne R., 1951-

Contributor:

University of Pennsylvania.

Subjects (All):

Folklore.

0358.

Local Subjects:

0358.

Physical Description:

234 pages

Contained In:

Dissertation Abstracts International 45-07A.

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

text file

Summary:

The changing context of American ethnic life calls for additions to the already rich corpus of material and theory on ethnic foodways. Most studies of the subject have focused on acculturation: the loss or maintenance over time of a body of knowledge (i.e., tradition) by an identified, bounded group. This interpretive model, drawn from a particular kind of ethnic settlement pattern, is still one valid way to study people isolated from "mainstream" American life by choice or by circumstance. There is lag in the foodways scholarship, however, between this prevalent model and contemporary ethnic lifestyles.

This study investigates the use of ethnic foodways among Jewish, Italian, and Finnish Minnesotans to communicate social identity. It takes ethnicity as one element of an individual's identity, and foodways as one tangible means of expressing that identity. Research indicates that ethnic foodways are consciously learned, chosen, and performed, along with other elements of identity, as part of a person's presentation of self. Through foodways people can communicate their allegiances, aspirations, or aversions to the various ethnic, racial, religious, regional, and socio-economic factors in their lives. Thus, ethnic foodways are not merely survivals of moribund Old World traditions but are dynamic and integral parts of personalized, contemporary food systems.

This work derives from library research and fieldwork. The fieldwork was carried out from 1981 to 1983 in major pockets of Jewish, Italian, and Finnish settlement in urban, rural, and small-town Minnesota. Participant observation in homes and attendance at public functions such as festivals and religious celebrations supplemented tape-recorded interviews.

Notes:

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 45-07, Section: A, page: 2218.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Pennsylvania, 1984.

Local Notes:

School code: 0175.

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.