Symbolic ethnicity

Not to be confused with Ethnosymbolism.
In the culture of the U.S., the celebration of Saint Patrick's Day, by many Americans, not just of Irish descent, is an example of symbolic ethnicity.[1][2][3][4]

In sociology, symbolic ethnicity is a nostalgic allegiance to, love for, and pride in a cultural tradition that can be felt and lived without having to be incorporated to the person's everyday behavior;[5] as such, a symbolic ethnic identity usually is composed of images from mass communications media.[vague][4]

  1. ^ Alba, Richard D. (1992). Ethnic Identity: The Transformation of White America (New ed.). New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 306. ISBN 9780300052213. Symbolic ethnicity is concerned with the symbols of ethnic cultures rather than with the cultures themselves, and this seems true also of the cultural commitments of ethnic identity: the cultural stuff of ethnicity continues to wither, and thus ethnic identity tend to latch onto a few symbolic commitments (such as St. Patrick's Day among the Irish).
  2. ^ Uba, Laura (2002). It Looks At You: The Returned Gaze of Cinema. Albany: State University of New York Press. p. 117. ISBN 9780791489079. While symbolic expressions of Irish ethnicity, such as St. Patrick's Day...
  3. ^ Jiobu, Robert M. (1988). Process, Praxis, and Transcendence. SUNY Press. pp. 12–13. ISBN 9781438407906.
  4. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Identity and belonging was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Winter, J. Alan (March 1996). "Symbolic ethnicity or religion among Jews in the United States: a test of Gansian hypothesis". Review of Religious Research. 37 (3): 233–247. doi:10.2307/3512276. JSTOR 3512276.