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Adoption, Construction, and Maintenance of Ethnic Identity

其他書名	A Scottish-American Example
出版	University of Missouri-Columbia, 1999
URL	http://books.google.com.hk/books?id=3F-4nQEACAAJ&hl=&source=gbs_api

註釋Purpose of the study . The scholarly literature indicates a revival in ethnic interest by third generation descendants of their original heritages rooted in cultures outside of America. Americans want their cultural heritage back and, as citizens of a nation of immigrants, they are relatively free to choose that cultural heritage. In this study, through in-depth interviews, the researcher explores how Scottish-Americans adopt construct, and maintain their ethnicity. The purpose of this study is twofold. The first objective is to determine why individuals identify with Scottish-American ethnicity. The second objective is to determine how individuals go about constructing and maintaining their ethnicity. Research approach . Grounded theory (Strauss and Corbin, 1994 and Glaser and Strauss, 1967) guides the research process. In-depth interviews with six women and five men were conducted to gain indepth understanding of individuals' experiences concerning the topics under study. A key contact and the snowball sampling method was utilized to identify potential interviewees. Interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed. The transcriptions were coded and then analyzed using the constant comparative method as outlined by Glaser and Strauss (1967). Theoretical grounding . The bulk of theoretical grounding for the current research comes from the social sciences, in particular, anthropology. Barth's (1969) work on ethnic boundary maintenance has been the primary basis for considering this research. McCracken's work (1986) on cultural meaning of consumer goods [material culture] and Hamilton's (1991), Holman's (1980), and Roach and Eicher's (1979) work on dress as a symbol system offered insight into the use of material culture as a tangible cue and symbol of intrinsic meaning. In addition, Wicklund and Gollwitzer's (1982) symbolic self-completion theory served as an effective interpretive tool for understanding the role of dress in the construction and maintenance of ethnic identity. Results and conclusions . Two important theoretical contributions evolved during the conduct of this research. The first is that for some individuals, one's initial dance with ethnic identity is couched with the publicly displayed and outwardly observable symbols connected to that identity. As time passes and that sense of ethnic identity comes to be owned by the individual, the importance of publicly-shared and announced connection to that identity become less relevant. This idea is consistent with Wicklund and Gollwitzer's (1982) symbolic self-completion theory. The second, and most important new theoretical contribution of this study, is the concept that one of the primary functions of ethnic identification is to enliven an individual's sense of connections to his or her near-generational family. This sense of connection to one's near-generational family, to family members known, is an idea virtually unexplored in the literature.