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Show LIVING ETHNIC TRADITIONS Steve Siporin Utah State University We are all members of ethnic groups. In fact, many of us are members of more than one. But we are, first, Americans. If we travel to another country, we usually discover how deeply rooted our American ethnicity is: we crave hamburgers, football scores, peanut butter, stories and news from home. We have other ethnic identities, too. If we are immigrants to the USA from Latin America, Asia, or Europe (or the children or grandchildren of immigrants), we may readily recognize how powerfully the old world can be part of our parents and ourselves. On certain occasions-especially at family and community gatherings such as holidays, weddings, and funerals-old-world customs, foods, songs, dances, and stories about immigration appear, and we feel our roots with overpowering emotion. Others of us are Afro- Americans; we possess an ethnic culture forged in America by our enslaved yet creative ancestors out of African, British, Irish, Southern, and other roots. And those of us who are Native Americans participate in dynamic ethnic cultures that many once believed would have vanished by now. But here it is 1987, and neither all the Indians nor all the descendants of the vast numbers of immigrants to this country have lost their distinctive cultural traditions or have vanished into the "melting pot." The only thing that has vanished is the melting-pot theory. As cultural anthropologist Wilbur Zelinsky has said, "The confident forecast of a few decades ago that the powerful forces of assimilation would grind down ethnic distinctions and mold a standardized American has not been borne out." Not only have the earlier waves of ethnic immigrants refused to "melt down"; they have, in many cases, developed new traditions which express ethnic identity as part of today's world. Continuing immigration, in the case of Hispanic-Americans, nourishes the cultural traditions of older Hispanic communities. The same can be said for Tongans and other groups in Salt Lake City. In other cases-such as the Hmong and other ethnic groups from Southeast Asia-the first immigrants began to arrive here only twelve years ago. These people and their cultures are new to North America; they are only beginning to adapt themselves to a radically different environment. Whatever the sources of ethnicity-native or foreign, new or old-all ethnic groups depend upon a wide variety of folk traditions to identify themselves and to express their feelings, attitudes, and values. Such traditions have usually been part of each group's culture for a long time, gradually changing to meet different circumstances. The originators or creators of these traditions can rarely be identified because the traditions are often very old and are closely identified with the group rather than with a single individual. The various kinds of folklore are usually communicated from person to person by oral, informal means rather than through print or formal instruction. Examples of ethnic folklore are countless. In Salt Lake City a Hmong woman teaches her daughter the painstaking, eye-straining, delicate work of sewing pa-ndao, "flower cloth," the traditional needlework of her people. A member of the black community makes a quilt as do so many in Utah-but this quilt has a geometric, mural-like design, an aesthetic idea communicated from Africa across America through generations of Afro- Americans. A Swedish family has long since lost its Swedish language, but every time the extended family gathers together, the grandfather says grace over the festive meal in Swedish. A Paiute mother, having moved to the city, returns to the "res" to get a willow cradleboard in which she carries her new baby. Ethnic folklore is not always confined to a group of common background, for it can also be shared with people who are not members of the ethnic group. Many citizens of Salt Lake City, perhaps secretly wishing they were Greek, rush to taste Greek delicacies when there is a glendi. Americans throughout the Intermountain West appreciate the performances of Basque dancers. For the non-Basque audience, such dancing is an exhilarating experience. But there is another dimension for the dancers and for the Basque communities: American Basques have selected dance as a major emblem of their ancient heritage and have invested their dances with all the emotion Basque ethnicity has for them. All these traditions-which are only a small sampling-are examples of the ethnic folklore which surrounds us and in which we participate both as insiders and outsiders. Just as it is hard to imagine an America without ethnic diversity, it is equally hard to imagine ourselves without ethnic loyalties. Folklore is the crystallized experience of our ancestors; it enables us to be part of the present without losing the past. In this festival that we call "Living Traditions," we celebrate the lively ethnic heritage of ourselves and our neighbors. We recognize our own role in the continuity of a people, and we appreciate the same role fulfilled by our neighbors. We discover that ethnic folklore is not a luxury, it sustains us. |
