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La Vigilia Italo-Americana : Revitalizing the Italian-American Family Through the Christmas Eve “Feast of the Seven Fishes”

2010; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 18; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/07409710.2010.529012

1542-3484

Michael A. Di Giovine,

Organic Food and Agriculture

Abstract This article ethnographically examines the symbolic importance of seafood and its ritualized consumption in demarcating ideals of "authenticity" and "intangible heritage" in the famed Italian-American Christmas Eve feast, La Vigilia. The Vigilia is a rite of intensification intended to revitalize a community in a climate of schism and "acculturation," and a rite of incorporation for integrating American spouses into the family's heritage. While continually transforming as participants entertain new culinary understandings, cultivate "Americanized" tastes, and integrate spouses into the ritual, the practices of selecting, preparing, and ritually consuming the Vigilia's food serve to maintain traditional gender roles, reinforce ethnic bonds through commensality, and denote "authenticity" through taste preferences. Suggesting that authenticity is conveyed not through a particular object or its taste, but rather through intangible processes, the author argues that the Vigilia feast becomes a central means of negotiating the antithetical pressures of maintaining tradition and embracing social transformation. Notes 1. "Southern" (sometimes called the Mezzogiorno in Italy) is a very historically and politically situated category that is common among Italians and the Italian diaspora but which cannot be precisely defined. It typically includes the current-day regions of Abruzzi, Molise, Campania, Puglia, Basilicata, Calabria, and Sicily. But it also often includes Lazio (sometimes Rome itself) and the island of Sardinia. Especially when called the Mezzogiorno, it is a category often marked with strong connotations of poverty, backwardness, and traditionalism. 2. The menu presented here is very much an "ideal type" of menu in the Weberian sense: a "unified analytical construct" (Weber 1963 Weber, Max. 1963. "Objectivity in Social Science and Science Policy". In Philosophy of the Social Sciences, Edited by: Nathanson, M. 365–418. New York: Random House. [Google Scholar]:398) arranged according to a number of viewpoints to provide "artificial simplicity" to the analyst, since a perfect example is "seldom found in history" (1992:56). I have tried to mark, where appropriate, the dates informants have said a particular dish was added or eliminated. 3. Zizi is the familiar form of zia, or aunt. Nonni is the plural for "grandparents," since the cousins' grandfather (nonno) passed away shortly after immigrating and she served as both nonno and nonna (grandmother) to them. 4. I use the title Zì (dialect for both "aunt" and "uncle") for the family's first-generation informants, and "cousin" for second-generation members.