Gender, Genocide, and Ethnicity

Women use legacies to help family members articulate family identity, learn family history, and provide succeeding generations with information about family culture. Using feminist standpoint theory and the life-course perspective, this qualitative study examined the intergenerational transmissions...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of family issues 2007-04, Vol.28 (4), p.567-589
Main Authors: Manoogian, Margaret M, Walker, Alexis J, Richards, Leslie N
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Armenian Americans
Ethnic identity
Ethnicity
Families & family life
Family cohesion
Feminism
Feminist theory
Genocide
Life events
Mothers
Qualitative research
Rituals
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Summary:Women use legacies to help family members articulate family identity, learn family history, and provide succeeding generations with information about family culture. Using feminist standpoint theory and the life-course perspective, this qualitative study examined the intergenerational transmissions that 30 older Armenian American mothers received and transmitted to succeeding generations within the sociohistorical experience of genocide. Mothers passed on legacies that included family stories, rituals/activities, and possessions. Because of multiple losses during the Armenian Genocide, they emphasized legacies that symbolized connection to family, underscored family cohesion, and accentuated ethnic identity. Tensions were evident as well because women's sense of responsibility for legacies clashed with their limited cultural knowledge, few inherited possessions, and the inevitable assimilation of their children and grandchildren into the dominant U.S. culture.
ISSN:0192-513X
1552-5481
DOI:10.1177/0192513X06297605