Elizabeth Castrejon

Anth 133P

Professor Slyomovics

Final Project: Mixed Ethnicity Household in the U.S.

Our country can be considered as one of the many nations with most immigration rates in

the world. People who have come for many reasons have established themselves here and made

their lives in an alien land away from their original home. There are persons whose ancestors

came long time ago and are described as native from this country. In one way or another we all

are and have become immigrants to this or perhaps another nation, although sometimes we do

not see ourselves as foreigners anymore since this is our place where we were born and raised,

our home. However, there are a huge amount of individuals who have moved to the U.S. and

decided to settle down and make it their new home. Some have become assimilated to the

unfamiliar place they moved and do not practice their native traditions or customs they once had

in their homeland. Others of them have maintained their cultural roots and brought them despite

the cultural differences of the new host country. This is the case of the household that I studied

and was able to document through a cultural inventory. It was the home that consisted of a

family in which the father and mother belonged to different ethnicities, immigrated to America

and formed their family here. The man is from Bangladesh and the woman is a Mexican Native.

The purpose of this project was to determine how the respective culture of each parent is

incorporated into their family and analyze if there is a culture that is dominant over the other due

to the different backgrounds of the couple. The observations done demonstrated the father’s

culture that has Bangladeshi origin, was more prominent in their household, reflected by all the

evidence from decorations, food and material encountered throughout their home.

Beginning my project I decided to do a cultural inventory of a mixed ethnicity family that

reflected their daily life in this country. A cultural inventory is used in anthropology to observe

the material items of the subjects studied in order to compare how people lived in the past or

present times. It is a rich source of insight and can be useful to obtain a variety of valuable data:

“Such information not only provides insight into the present character of people’s lives but can

also describe acculturation and track cultural continuity and change” (Collier and Collier 1987:

45). Since I knew one couple that was an example of this type of families and was friends with, I

considered them to be an appropriate subject for my project. They resembled a classic immigrant

family of different backgrounds that established in this country, married and formed their life

together with their children born and raised in this country, fitting all the characteristics that I

was looking for to study. The documenting of this project was made through a series of

photographs that I took of their household objects. The photographs, as Collier and Collier said

in their article, were the evidence of data that allowed me obtain information by recording

something with a camera. They also were the connections that let me know how this family

structured their lives as evidenced by the material captured by photography.

The spatial configuration of otherwise ordinary objects, common to a mass society, may oftenreflect or express the cultural patterns and values of distinct cultural groups or may

provide insight into the well-being of the inhabitants (1987: 46).

Following the criteria that was used for the documenting project of the Middle-class

households of LA in the book Life at Home on the Twenty-First Century by Arnold, Graesch,

Ragazzini and Ochs, I used similar methods to photograph the house objects of this family for

my project. I began examining the items that would represent any sign of the distinct cultures of

the husband and wife respectively. To record the material for my project I used a Nikon Coolpix

S4100, a digital camera that I have had for quite some time and my IPhone 5 camera. Both were

equally useful to take the photographs during my fieldwork in the project. I began documenting

the house objects by finding the first evidence of Bangladeshi decoration in their living room.

They are noticeable and captured my attention immediately because of their significant

placement all over the room along with common house objects like TV and books. The statues of

elephants mainly were the most outstanding piece of decorations that resembled the Asian

country influence in the house [Photo 1]. I also found paintings of the same type of elephants

hanged on the walls of the living room, adding to the collection of elephants’ decorations in the

room [Photos 4 & 5]. These statues and paintings were all made originally in Bangladesh so they

are authentic decorations the couple has brought or have been given to them as a gift, according

to their responses when asked about the origin of these items. Moving on to the guest room, I

found the most decorated place of the house with Bengali artifacts, from the little statues that are

placed on the furniture to more paintings and different types of art posted around the room

[Photos 7-10]. Here, there were some cushions that are traditionally used in the South Asian

country as an item of decoration or with the actual purpose for sitting or resting [Photos 11 &

12]. Also, there were religious books for prayers in the original language of Bangladesh which is

Bengali that are used in the Muslim religion [Photo 13]. The father and his native family of

Bangladesh besides speaking Bengali are also Muslims, the reason why these religious books are

found in the house. Perceiving the Bangladeshi art in the form of paintings and ornaments I

realized these artifacts were iconic for this family since they resembled the traditional

decorations of the father’s country of origin, Bangladesh.

As I entered into the master room of the parents I encountered another piece of data that

would be added into my observations. There was a small table next to the bed where there were

some iconic portraits of the Virgin Mary and a rosary that belonged to the mother [Photo 15].

The prayer books were in Spanish, the native language of the mother. She is a devoted Catholic

as evidenced in the religious objects located on this table and a small cross she was wearing as a

necklace [Photo 16]. She also showed me that she has a special place as an altar in her walk-in

closet where she has a more variety of religious material including a crucifix and more books for

prayers [Photo 17]. This selected spot is reserved for her own beliefs as they differ from the ones

of her husband. This married couple not only has distinctive ethnicities but also religious beliefs

which are mainly influenced from their own cultures. The notion of a personal space for her

Catholic religious objects that are only found in her room compared to the guest room that is

completely decorated in Bangladesh art and traditions supported my conclusion that the

husband’s culture was expressed more publicly and dominant in this household.

I later approached the dining room in which I noticed an interesting juxtaposition in the

decorations. Hanged on the wall there was an iconic image, a representation of the famous

painting by Leonardo da Vinci of The Last Supper [Photo 18]. As Berger would say in his Ways

of Seeing book: “… when an image is presented as a work of art, the way people look at it is

affected by a whole series of learnt assumptions about art. Assumptions concerning: beauty,

truth, civilization, form, status, taste, etc.” (Berger 1972: 11). This painting in the house is not

the original painting reproduction, but a replica of this worldwide known painting that I could

identify because the portraits of the people painted do not look like the artwork of da Vinci. I

imagine this painting relates to the Christian belief of the mother who herself practices

Catholicism and this represented a symbol for her beliefs. Then on the table, there were candles

that were decorated with a head of Buddha [Photo 19]. Discovering this contrast of the iconic

characters that portray two particular religious leaders captured my attention immediately as I

considered this to be an interesting distinction. I am aware that the husband is not Buddhist, but

having this portrayal of Buddha in a place that can be easily observable as it is the dinner table,

suggests a public announcement of this religious ideology that contrasts with the Christian

painting.

The kitchen was another place that featured the native cultures of the couple. The

ingredients stocked in the kitchen pantry were divided for Bangladeshi traditional food that the

woman uses to prepare traditional meals for her husband [Photos 21-23 & 25] and the ones she

uses for Mexican recipes [Photo 24]. It was fascinating to find this part of the household as it

was clear evidence of the distinct backgrounds of this family. Although while documenting this

data I found more food and ingredients relevant to the South Asian cuisine of the father

supporting the result of the project regarding one culture being more visible than the other. As

far as my observations were concerning the influence of the food for the children of the

household, they were exposed to the majority of the options that the mother cooked. Being raised

in this household, they did not have favoritism to a specific food selection. They consumed the

food that was prepared by their mother, mostly being Bangladeshi dishes.

As I completed my fieldwork in this household, I gathered my observations made

throughout the day with the following conclusion. The culture that was most prevalent in this

household based on the evidence that I documented was the husband’s Bangladeshi background.

It was all over their home, small pieces of objects and material that illustrated this outcome of the

study. The mother’s culture was present as well but not represented as much as the father’s. This

project is an example of a mixed ethnicity household in which the traditions and customs of the

father and head of the family with Bangladesh origin is most reflected than the mother’s

Mexican descent in their home established and created when they both immigrated into this

country.

Bibliography

Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. London: British Broadcasting Corporation and Penguin Books, 1972. 7-34. Print.

Arnold, Jeanne. “Mountain of Things.” Fast-Forward Family: Home, Work, Relationships in Middle-Class America (2013): 67-93. Print.

Arnold, Jeanne, Anthony Graesch, Enzo Ragazzini, and Elinor Ochs. Life at Home in the Twenty-First Century: 32 Families Open Their Doors. Los Angeles: Cotsen

Institute of Archaeology, UCLA, 2012. 3-19. Print.

Collier, John, and Malcolm Collier. Visual Anthropology: Photography as Research Method(1987): 29-63. Print.

Appendix

Photo 1. Statues of elephants in the living room

Photo 2. Living room decorations

Photo 3. More elephant statues in living room

Photos 4 & 5. Pair of elephant paintings found in the living room

Photo 6. Decoration in the living room with written description in Bengali (official language of Bangladesh)

Photo 7. Painting in guest room that were given to them as a gift by one of their Bangladesh relatives

Photo 8. Decoration in guest room

Photo 9. More decorations in guest room

Photo 10. Decoration with Bengali writing in guest room

Photo 11. Bangladesh cushion in guest room

Photo 12. Decorations and cushion

Photo 13. Muslim prayer books

Photo 14. Prayer rug, traditional shoes that were used by the wife of this household, prayer books, and traditional clothing that belong to one of the couple’s children

Photo 15. Virgin Mary prayer books and rosary with some candles and flowers to decorate on small table

Photo 16. Cross necklace worn by the wife

Photo 17. Personal altar of the mother with Catholic religious material in her closet

Photo 18. Dinning room painting

Photo 19. Candle decorated with head of Buddha on dining table

Photo 20. Side view of dining room with both the Buddha candles and the Last Supper painting

Photo 21. Kitchen pantry with Asian ingredients

Photo 22. Asian ingredients

Photo 23. Bangladeshi products

Photo 24. Mexican food products

Photo 25. Bangladesh meals

Photo 26. Calendar in kitchen with pictures of Indian places