关键词：
CHRISTMAS
CHRISTMAS cooking
HOLIDAY cooking
ITALIAN Americans
ETHNOGRAPHIC analysis
GENDER role
ETHNICITY
UNITED States -- Social life & customs
摘要：
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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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