THE RELIGION OF ETHNICITY: BELIEF AND BELONGING IN A GREEK-AMERICAN COMMUNITY (ORTHODOXY, ACCULTURATION, ETHNOGRAPHY, CLERGY)

An ethnography of a Greek-American community, this study explores the nature of ethnic attachment and role of religion in its maintenance. It depicts ethnicity as a dynamic process operating at both individual and corporate levels and requiring (1) cultural material, (2) cultural identification and (3) cultural expression. The model suggests ethnicity can persist as a group phenomenon despite ongoing change that objectively brings Greek-American culturally closer to mainstream American. An emphasis is to explicate world view; members\u27 conceptualizations of ethnic distinctiveness focus on individual, family, work and success, and the church-centered community. Over three generations, ethnicity\u27s attributes have proven fluid; what has held constant is ethnicity\u27s role in self-identification. Ultimately, ethnicity is group defined. Cultural material (attitudes, beliefs, folkways) plays an essentially symbolic role in setting the group apart. Accordingly, cultural material need not be distinctive as long as group members accept it as theirs. The study suggests ethnicity reflects situational priorities. Cultural material is continually modified: elements conflicting with the host culture are eliminated; elements enhancing group solidarity and acceptance are added. Thus, there is evolution by environmental selection that continuously redefines ethnicity to fit the imperatives of group compatibility and maintenance. The community functions as stage on which ethnicity is played out; at center is the church. Since ethnic identification demands affiliation with Orthodoxy, the Greek cannot exercise consumer preference to select from denominational options. The result is a certain tension between the unchanging church and adherents. Within the Orthodox framework, and growing from ethnic concensus, is a belief system often divergent from doctrinal Orthodoxy\u27s stated ideals. In effect, a Greek construct increasingly of members\u27 own design is being used to fashion a religion American enough not to interfere with mainstream middle class status, yet Greek enough to ensure ethnic distinctiveness