Ο Μετανάστης (1965) (Η Ταινία)

http://vimeo.com/14091972

My Big Fat Greek Wedding and "High Stimulus Culture": Pranks as Means for Socializing into Ethnicity

It is most likely that viewers of My Big Fat Greek Wedding will recall those moments in the film where Ian Miller's prospective kin capitalize on his lack of Greek to play pranks on him. These are memorable scenes in which a member of the dominant group participates in social life outside his "cultural turf," only to be subjected to embarrassment and ridicule. Why does the film emphasize this kind of situations? Obviously for their humorous effect, generated by the discomfort audiences may feel for the exercise of ethnicity's power. But there is more. For some time now I have been working on a close reading of the the film (forthcoming), and I discuss this situation along two axis:

• Ian clearly finds himself in a position of minority within the ethnic subculture. He lacks the linguistic and cultural skills to effectively negotiate his integration and belonging within ethnicity. Structurally, he is the weaker link in relation to ethnic networks. Let us pause for a moment and remind ourselves that this predicament has been a defining experience of immigrants and minorities. The film then "invites" the viewers to experience, at least momentarily, how it feels like to be a vulnerable outsider. If immigrants have been devalued and humiliated in the past (but also even in the present) by the dominant society, the film creates situations for the dominant to experience what it feels like being in the weaker side of the power relation. What purpose does this aim for identification serve? In my paper I argue that it functions as a condition for generating deep cross-ethnic understanding, intersubjectivity. If the dominant experiences marginalization, it feels its devastation, it is likely that it will empathize with those disenfranchised (one hopes then that the feelings this recognition of suffering generate will be those of empathy, not resentment).

In this post I suggest that the aforementioned scenes associated with Ian's introduction into ethnicity highlight the mechanisms through which he is acculturated into Greek American ethnicity (or more accurately, the version of ethnicity that the film presents, given that there is no uniform Greek American culture). Representing a super nice "white guy" (modeled after Tom Hanks, as a number of scholars have argued), Ian Miller eventually embraces ethnicity, representing in this manner the dominant society's openness to cultural diversity. Here is a more formal analysis of Ian's acculturation into ethnicity:

Understanding the conditions under which the male hero is socialized into ethnicity is important. The intimidation and pranks that the ethnics perform on Ian do not solely function to relegate the newcomer into a position of inferiority. They do not solely “return the gaze” at the dominant, reversing the hierarchies between Self and Other within an ethnic setting. They also initiate a process of ethnicization, namely Ian's education into the ways of ethnicity. This point is brought home once we note that Greek popular discourse exhibits high tolerance for verbal aggression while “white mainstream culture” inhibits it. The latter “is a low stimulus culture,” Thomas Kochman observes, “making individuals who would initiate potent stimuli (such as personal insults) entirely responsible for the serious way they might be taken,” thus “inhibit[ing] the production of potent stimuli” (335). As a result, recipients of insults display low capacity to manage verbal abuse. The filmic situations where the hero is battered (threatened and humiliated) therefore, dramatize volatile and potentially disruptive cross-cultural encounters (*). Confronted in this manner, the character of Ian would either follow the logic of his own low stimulus culture and have his sensibility seriously offended, or consent to the rules of the ethnic “high stimulus culture” and exhibit high tolerance toward the insult. The former option would signal an alienating posture jeopardizing the solidarity of his newly found extended family; the latter will signal his willingness to enter into the signifying webs of ethnicity. Ian’s frisky chasing off the abusers who have just humiliated him in front of the entire family (recall the “I have three testicles” scene) signifies his acceptance of the exchange as playful, a strategy of “high stimulus cultures.” Male ethnics here invite the newcomer to play along with their ethnic codes, initiating education into the ways of ethnicity. Ian will learn to negotiate taunts and retorts in the manner of the ethnics. In this manner, most importantly, the process into the agonistic play of difference and intersubjectivity begins.

(*) The middle class ethos of conflict avoidance does not mean that verbal aggression is absent in the socialization within “white culture” (see Ayoub and Barnett).

Ayoub Millicent R., and Stephen A. Barnett. “Ritualized Verbal Insult in White High School Culture.” Journal of American Folklore 78 (1965): 337-44.

Kochman, Thomas. “The Boundary Between Play and Nonplay in Black Verbal Dueling.” Language in Society 12.3 (1983): 329-37.

** For additional analysis see, http://immigrations-ethnicities-racial.blogspot.com/2012/11/my-big-fat-greek-wedding-analysis.html

Greek Diners as Cultural Ambassadors

One might say that Greek Diners are at the forefront of American multiculturalism. Their eclectic menu interfaces with standard American diner fare. Greek dishes are standard menu fixtures, occasionally listed next to dishes from other cuisines (I have seen "Taco salad" along with "Salad of Myconos"). Also, they often venture into fusion arrangements, mixing elements of various cultures ("Greek burrito," for instance, in the Southwest). Greek Diners are uniquely placed, therefore, to promote Greek cuisine to the American public.


They may also take it upon themselves to disseminate cultural and historical facts about Greece, introduce Greek letters and words in the national vocabulary, as well as translate Greek words such as gyros. In other words they function as cultural ambassadors, as I found out while visiting the ΑΩ Authentic Greek Cuisine in Flagstaff, Arizona. Located at the historic Route 66, this family restaurant exhibits all the features of the diner experience with a strong element of Greek cuisine (and a generous dose of hospitality, to which I was graciously treated). 


In addition to the cuisine, a brochure in each table introduces Greek culture to customers. Here is a sample:

Greece – Did you Know?

• Feta, which is made from goat's milk, is the Greece's national cheese. It dates back to the Homeric ages, and the average per-capita consumption of feta cheese in Greece is the highest in the world.

• In Greece, people celebrate the "name day" of the saint that bears their name rather than their own birthday.

• Thousands of birds stop in  Greece's wetlands on their migrations. As many as 1000,000 birds from northern Europe and Asia spend their winters there.

• The saying "taking the bull by its horns" comes form the Greek myth of Hercules saving Crete from  a ranging bull by seizing its horns.

• Rhodes has been inhabited since the Stone Age.

...

• Slaves made up between 40% and 80% of ancient Greece's population. Slaves were captives from wars, abandond children, or children of slaves.

...

• Greece organized the first municipal dump in the Western world around 500 B.C. 

• During the Nazi occupation of Greece in WWII, most Jews were taken to concentration camps across Europe. The Jewish population in Greece fell sharply from 78,000 to less than 13,000 by the end of the war.

(the complete list consists of 13 items as well as brief introductions to Demeter and Dionysus)

Hybridity in Greek America

Drawn by an anonymous Greek-American student at Ohio State University (OSU) (circa mid1990s), the figure at the bottom above combines symbols of ethnic and regional identity. The traditional dress as well as the exclamatory OPA clearly point to Greek ethnic identity. The buckeye nut, on the other hand, which figures as the headpiece of the dancing figure, is the symbol of the State of Ohio, and OSU athletics. Note that the OPA is also entangled in the dual symbolism. The decorative buck eye brings attention to the O which itself is drawn in a manner to replicate the letter as it commonly appears in OSU prints.

The popular artist here draws from two ubiquitous images: the ezvone (pervasive as an expression of Greek-American male identity in U.S. Greek festivals, and symbol of Greek national identity); and the Brutus Buckey, the athletics mascot of The Ohio State University. The "Buckeyes" is a term referring to OSU's intercollegiate sport teams and players. The image gives expression to a Greek-Ohio-American identity, in fact a Greek-American Buckeye.

The image is a great example of hybridity, which refers to cultural forms combining elements of more than one culture. As such it invites further commentary. What does a hybrid identity mean? Should we value it or not? Why? Is it a progressive cultural form, or not?

But I resist to offer my own thoughts as I am primarily interested in your own comments. How does the image make you feel? What kind of thoughts does it trigger? Is this image significant, and in what way?

Be Greek for the Weekend!

The invitation to be an ethnic for a weekend underlines the manner in which identities are thought in postmodernity: malleable and situational; fleeting, disposable and shallow. Pleasurable activities like dance and eating serve as readily available venues where ethnicity is shared and ethnic belonging is experienced. Forget language! Let us join the kalamatiano to experience the kefi/mojo as a warm up before heading for an eclectic nightclub featuring retro disco later in the night.

But this condition of identity fluidity presents a prospect that was not available to American ethnicities before multiculturalism. It makes possible a fantasy of power reversal. The context of the festival offers a space where a cultural minority becomes the norm into which the dominant assimilates, albeit momentarily. It is no wonder that unlike films such as Achilles' Love (www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xN0LyXAOpg), where the Greek festival is crucial to the plot, My Big Fat Greek Wedding does not bother to feature it. This is because the film enacts the fantasy of becoming Greek in a much larger scale, certainly beyond the demarcated ethnic weekend of the festival.

How does this embodied experience of performing ethnicity in a Greek festival shape the American public? How does it shape the subjectivities of Greek Americans, young and old? It is wise to postpone any light dismissal of ethnic festivals until we know the answer to these questions. As we keep in mind critiques of the festivals as cookie-cutter cultural expressions let us also reflect on how they contribute to ethnic empowerment.

The Argentines, the Portuguese and the Greeks (1923)

kourelis.blogspot.com/2011/05/argentine-portuguese-and-greeks-1923.html

Greek American Graffiti

kourelis.blogspot.com/2011/05/demetrakis-183.html

The Origin of the Iconic New York City Paper Cup

Source: www.deadprogrammer.com/greek-cups-of-new-york

Why does the iconic New York City paper cup look so… Greek?

The designer of the cup, Leslie Buck, arrived in the U.S. after fleeing the Nazis during World War II. He joined a new company called “Sherri Cup” in the ’60s. He designed the cup, with no art training, with a Grecian theme and in the colors of the Greek flag, to appeal to… Greeks. It turns out that a large portion of the city’s diners at that time were owned by Greeks. It was an instant hit.

So, we have immigration, ethnic occupational segregation, and Buck’s ingenuity to thank for decades of cozy, New Yorky feelings inspired by that little cup.

Originally posted at, thesocietypages.org/socimages/tag/nation-greece/

Mixing Cultural Codes

Photo credits: Thomas Papacostas, April 2010 (Dublin, Columbus, Ohio)

Serendipity adds exciting layers to the practice of teaching. At the end of a class session this week on the early twentieth-century café aman scene in the United States–clubs attracting multiethnic audiences from the Balkans, Asia Minor and the Middle East–a student waited to share with me the snapshot featured above.

This is how the student, who is connected with both Greek and Lebanese cultures, described the event: “This was at a dance hosted by the Lebanese Student Organization and the Turkish Student Association of OSU. It was held at a Greek restaurant in Dublin, Ohio, called the Greek Corner (which I came to find is actually owned and operated by Albanians). Because it was a Greek restaurant, the food and décor of the establishment was Greek (hence the Greek writing), but the Turkish and Lebanese students each displayed decorations (i.e. flags) from their respective countries. The music was a mixture of Arabic and Turkish songs.”

Everybody danced.

These contemporary mixings! Ethnic signs are appropriated for their economic and cultural capital while bearing no necessary connection with the identities of those who reproduce them. Eclectic coexistence of national codes–a welcome sign in Greek, Turkish and Lebanese flags, the replica of a Greek statue and others simulations of Greek identity, Arabic and other dancing–explode cultural purity. Emergent multiethnic situations, historically suppressed by nationalism, appear in various combinations. Contact zones where multiethnic audiences actualize around shared tastes on music and dance take place in New York City, San Francisco, Melbourne, and elsewhere too.

The dissonance between the Greek identity of restaurants and the ethnic identities of those who operate them is now a common occurrence, as I can attest from the Columbus restaurant scene. As an entrenched cultural and economic phenomenon in the U.S., Greek restaurants are now claimed by an assortment of ethnic entrepreneurs whose identities and cuisines lack the cultural caché of the Greeks.

This raises a number of fascinating questions. How Greek identity is constructed in these settings? What is the role of material culture and cultural practices in simulating ethnicity? Where do objects of decoration and recipes come from? How are they refracted in their translation? Where does the food originate, how is it prepared, how is it served, and who serves it?

Acropolis Club (Portland, Oregon)

Photo credits: Ana Chow, February 2010
Readers are encouraged to submit a caption for this photograph

Acropolis Club (Portland, Oregon)

Photo credits: Ana Chow, February 2010
Readers are encouraged to submit a caption for this photograph