Complex patterns of acculturation are revealed in the most comprehensive ethnographic study of contemporary French immigrants in the United States. Written by a French-born American anthropologist who has insider status among French Americans, The French in the United States offers a fresh look at the histories and experiences of French immigrants. In the foreign-born generation, a high degree of social integration into American society co-exists with the maintenance of a French identity which manifests itself in the areas of language, culture, and perceptions. The French heritage does not usually endure past the second generation, however, because its maintenance within the family is not adequately supported by collective efforts, due to a lack of cohesiveness among French-born individuals who have become permanent immigrants. A number of factors account for the foregoing: the small number of French natives in the United States, their scattered geographical distribution, the absence of spatially defined communities populated by direct immigrants from France, and a very high rate of intermarriage. Another important factor is the primarily individual nature of migration from France to this country since the last half of the 20th century, and a highly developed sense of self-direction in those who stay permanently. Their French identity must be regarded as cultural rather than ethnic: it is tied to a distant homeland, rather than to a group with territorial, institutional, and organizational identity in the United States. Lindenfeld delves into the makings of this French identity and distinguishes French immigrants from other Americans.
Dr. Jacques Loizeau, a French American college professor, has been nicknamed Dr. Penguin by his students because of the way he walks due to arthritis. He is a world traveler, adapting easily to different cultural traits, especially his native French culture. He is also a frequent dreamer: He often dreams of being a bird flying in total freedom.His recurring dream becomes reality--freedom--when he adopts the name of Dr. Bird inspired by his last name (Loizeau) in French as he makes important changes in his life.
Dizzy is an exuberant and fearless lady, an eighty-year-old "free spirit" who likes to help people and share her love of life with them. While looking for her missing cat, she meets a homeless man half her age, and they strike up a friendship. They go on a trip together in her newly acquired car-despite her children's warnings-and have some adventures (good and bad). Then Dizzy goes to France as a caretaker for a young American boy and has other exploits, sometimes comical. All along, she is wondering who took care of her runaway cat in her absence. The mystery is finally solved and Dizzy's life takes a sharp turn for new adventures.
This is a contemporary novel with historical flashbacks based on library and ethnographic research. The main character (Catherine) is a French student who grew up in Normandy and studied European history as an undergraduate. As a teenager, she had read that French-speaking Canadians were the first permanent settlers in northwestern Oregon in the early nineteenth century. She also discovered that one of those French Canadian pioneers had practically the same last name as hers. Suspecting a family relationship with him, she looks up her father's genealogical chart and finds a blank space where her potential ancestor's descendants should have been listed. Eager to elucidate the mystery, she sets a long-term goal for herself: going to the United States in order to improve her English and investigate the French Canadian saga. Catherine achieves her dream by getting a position as a mother's helper in Oregon, at the price of eventually breaking up with her French boyfriend. During her stay in the United States, she explores the former French Prairie area in northwestern Oregon. She also finds out through ancestry research that she is indeed distantly related to the French Canadian pioneer whose name is similar to hers. She meets some of his descendants and, after some detours and adventures, falls in love with one of them. All along she experiences occasional culture shock but gradually adapts very well to the American way of life.
This study is both particularistic and generalizing. At one level it can be seen as an investigation of French urban marketplaces as systems of communication, with a microscopic examination of verbal interaction and sociability patterns in a specific cultural setting. At another level it constitutes an attempt to show some relationships between the ethnography of communication, urban anthropology and symbolic interactionism: all three lines of inquiry converge here to highlight the social and symbolic dimensions of traditional street markets in modern urban France, with primary focus on the role of speech in sociability. A major source of inspiration is interactional sociolinguistics which considers language as an activity performed by social actors for specific purposes.
This is a contemporary novel with historical flashbacks based on library and ethnographic research. The main character (Catherine) is a French student who grew up in Normandy and studied European history as an undergraduate. As a teenager, she had read that French-speaking Canadians were the first permanent settlers in northwestern Oregon in the early nineteenth century. She also discovered that one of those French Canadian pioneers had practically the same last name as hers. Suspecting a family relationship with him, she looks up her father's genealogical chart and finds a blank space where her potential ancestor's descendants should have been listed. Eager to elucidate the mystery, she sets a long-term goal for herself: going to the United States in order to improve her English and investigate the French Canadian saga. Catherine achieves her dream by getting a position as a mother's helper in Oregon, at the price of eventually breaking up with her French boyfriend. During her stay in the United States, she explores the former French Prairie area in northwestern Oregon. She also finds out through ancestry research that she is indeed distantly related to the French Canadian pioneer whose name is similar to hers. She meets some of his descendants and, after some detours and adventures, falls in love with one of them. All along she experiences occasional culture shock but gradually adapts very well to the American way of life.
Dizzy is an exuberant and fearless lady, an eighty-year-old "free spirit" who likes to help people and share her love of life with them. While looking for her missing cat, she meets a homeless man half her age, and they strike up a friendship. They go on a trip together in her newly acquired car-despite her children's warnings-and have some adventures (good and bad). Then Dizzy goes to France as a caretaker for a young American boy and has other exploits, sometimes comical. All along, she is wondering who took care of her runaway cat in her absence. The mystery is finally solved and Dizzy's life takes a sharp turn for new adventures.
This study is both particularistic and generalizing. At one level it can be seen as an investigation of French urban marketplaces as systems of communication, with a microscopic examination of verbal interaction and sociability patterns in a specific cultural setting. At another level it constitutes an attempt to show some relationships between the ethnography of communication, urban anthropology and symbolic interactionism: all three lines of inquiry converge here to highlight the social and symbolic dimensions of traditional street markets in modern urban France, with primary focus on the role of speech in sociability. A major source of inspiration is interactional sociolinguistics which considers language as an activity performed by social actors for specific purposes.
Complex patterns of acculturation are revealed in the most comprehensive ethnographic study of contemporary French immigrants in the United States. Written by a French-born American anthropologist who has insider status among French Americans, The French in the United States offers a fresh look at the histories and experiences of French immigrants. In the foreign-born generation, a high degree of social integration into American society co-exists with the maintenance of a French identity which manifests itself in the areas of language, culture, and perceptions. The French heritage does not usually endure past the second generation, however, because its maintenance within the family is not adequately supported by collective efforts, due to a lack of cohesiveness among French-born individuals who have become permanent immigrants. A number of factors account for the foregoing: the small number of French natives in the United States, their scattered geographical distribution, the absence of spatially defined communities populated by direct immigrants from France, and a very high rate of intermarriage. Another important factor is the primarily individual nature of migration from France to this country since the last half of the 20th century, and a highly developed sense of self-direction in those who stay permanently. Their French identity must be regarded as cultural rather than ethnic: it is tied to a distant homeland, rather than to a group with territorial, institutional, and organizational identity in the United States. Lindenfeld delves into the makings of this French identity and distinguishes French immigrants from other Americans.
This is a contemporary novel with historical flashbacks based on library and ethnographic research. The main character (Catherine) is a French student who grew up in Normandy and studied European history as an undergraduate. As a teenager, she had read that French-speaking Canadians were the first permanent settlers in northwestern Oregon in the early nineteenth century. She also discovered that one of those French Canadian pioneers had practically the same last name as hers. Suspecting a family relationship with him, she looks up her father's genealogical chart and finds a blank space where her potential ancestor's descendants should have been listed. Eager to elucidate the mystery, she sets a long-term goal for herself: going to the United States in order to improve her English and investigate the French Canadian saga. Catherine achieves her dream by getting a position as a mother's helper in Oregon, at the price of eventually breaking up with her French boyfriend. During her stay in the United States, she explores the former French Prairie area in northwestern Oregon. She also finds out through ancestry research that she is indeed distantly related to the French Canadian pioneer whose name is similar to hers. She meets some of his descendants and, after some detours and adventures, falls in love with one of them. All along she experiences occasional culture shock but gradually adapts very well to the American way of life.
Dr. Jacques Loizeau, a French American college professor, has been nicknamed Dr. Penguin by his students because of the way he walks due to arthritis. He is a world traveler, adapting easily to different cultural traits, especially his native French culture. He is also a frequent dreamer: He often dreams of being a bird flying in total freedom.His recurring dream becomes reality--freedom--when he adopts the name of Dr. Bird inspired by his last name (Loizeau) in French as he makes important changes in his life.
Addressing an important social and political issue which is still much debated today, this volume explores the connections between religious conversions and gendered identity against the backdrop of a world undergoing significant social transformations. Adopting a collaborative approach to their research, the authors explore the connections and differences in conversion experiences, tracing the local and regional rootedness of individual conversions as reflected in conversion narratives in three different locations: Germany and German missions in South Africa and colonial Australia, at a time of massive social changes in the 1860s.
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