Encounters with American Ethnic Cultures represents a cultural approach to understanding ethnic diversity in the Philadelphia metropolitan area.

Thirteen chapters, each using an ethnographic field methodology, explore such ethnic experience as the "invisible" (WASPS and African-Americans); "self-chosen" (Welsh-American, Irish-American, and Ukrainian-American); "gender-related" (the Lubovitcher); "religious" (Jewish, Native American, Greek-American, and Puerto Rican); and "dislocated" (Cambodians and the homeless). Ethnographic fieldwork focuses an insider's view on the meaning of ethnic experience in the lives of participants in the research. This volume examines the role and function of various ethnic endeavors in the preservation and maintenance of ethnic identity by contemporary Americans.

This five part volume includes:


Introduction: Ethnic Culture Analysis--A Course of Study, Jane C. Goodale and Philip L. Kilbride


Methodology, Elizabeth R. Ameisen and Carolyn G. Friedman


Part I. Black and WASP in American Cultural Experience: The Invisible Ones


Exclusivity in an Ethnic Elite: Racial Prejudice as Boundary Maintenance, Elizabeth R. Ameisen


Africans and African-Americans: An Ethnohistorical View and Symbolic Analysis of Food Habits, Carolyn G. Friedman


Part II. Self-Chosen Ethnicity


Unique Americans: The Welsh-American Ethnic Group in the Philadelphia Area, Lorraine Murray


Irish-Americans and Irish Dance: Self-Chosen Ethnicity, Erin McGauley Hebard


Art and Identity: Ukrainian-American Ethnicity, Jennifer Krier


Part III. Interpretations of Gender and Ethnicity: The Lubavitcher Experience


Equality Does Not Mean Sameness: The Role of Women within the Lubavitcher Marriage, Philip Baldinger


Strategies for Strength: Women and Personal Empowerment in Lubavitcher Hasidism, Gita Srinivasan


Part IV. Ethnicity and Religion: The Persistence of Collective Representations


Our Lives Revolve around the Holidays: Holidays in the Transmission of Jewish Ethnicity, Anna Dahlem


Fayetteville or Raleigh? An Analysis of an American Indian Baptist Church, Beth Batten


Issues in Greek Orthodoxy That Define and Maintain Greek-American Ethnicity, Karen L. Belsley


Es como si fuera la casa de uno: The Role of the Community Church in Maintaining Puerto Rican Ethnicity, Monica Schoch-Spana


Part V. Dislocation and Ethnicity


Cambodian Marriage: Marriage and How it is Changing among Cambodian Refugees in Philadelphia, Rebecca C. Popenoe


Ethnic Expression in a Jewish Street Person, Andrew Millstein


Conclusion, Philip L. Kilbride and Jane C. Goodale