A Paragon of Family Ritual: The Zimmerman Family Reunion

Abstract

A case study of a family reunion ritual is showcased in this analysis. Fifty-nine members of one multigenerational family were interviewed and answered questions about their most meaningful family reunion memories. The author integrated the interview data, reunion observations, and family documents to answer research questions about the construction of meaningful reunion rituals, the meaning attached to ritualizing activities, and the transformation of the ritual over time. Three metaphorical phases—labeled allegro, legato, and decrescendo —describe how family members described changes in the family reunion ritual over time. The findings show that members of this multigenerational family reported alignment with the properties of family rituals theorizing – transformation, communication, and stabilization.

Keywords:

• Case Study Method
• Family Ritualizing
• Multigenerational Family Relationships

Acknowledgment

The author wishes to thank her mother, Esther Zimmerman Coffelt, for verifying factual information; her cousin, Nancy Zimmerman Gardiner, for sharing information gathered from the first phase of the family project; and her Zimmerman relatives for candidly sharing their stories and affiliation to the Zimmerman family. She also wishes to thank Kristina Sharp and Al Clark for their helpful comments during the development of this manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

This project was supported by a Liberal Arts & Sciences Small Grant from Iowa State University.