Mint Grows Through the Cracks in the Foundation: Food Practices of the Assimilated Lebanese Diaspora in New England (USA)

Abstract

With an ethnographic focus on descendants of Lebanese migrants in the U.S.A., this paper examines what ethnic foods means for people who consider themselves to be “assimilated” into the American white, middle-class mainstream, and who are eager to remain accepted as unhyphenated Americans, as neither Lebanese-American nor Arab-American. The paper traces their food practices and analyzes how they use food within kinship networks to honour ancestors, communicate, and generate bonds between people of Lebanese ancestry. It illustrates how preparation and consumption of “Lebanese” cuisine has become embedded in social practices of these residents of small towns across rural New England. The findings presented in the paper provide an analysis of an identity practice with both a white, assimilated American aspect and a Lebanese diasporic one.

Notes

1. First-generation refers to the migrants while second-generation (etc.) refers to those born in the U.S.

2. Meaning they do not ‘speak Lebanese.’ Some people say the language is ‘Lebanese,’ or ‘Syrian,’ not Arabic. This couple moved between all three terms for the language during our conversation.

3. Starting with the second-generation intermarriage with non-Lebanese was the norm; over eighty percent of my informants had intermarried.

4. Large scale “Lebanese dinners” or “haflis” (parties; my informants use the Arabic singular with English plural ‘s’ added) do occur sporadically in northern New England. This paper is focused on day to day food practices rather than heritage events where food features as an important component.

5. I did seventy-two such interviews involving about ninety people; I estimate that I had meaningful, repeated interactions with at least thirty additional people and socialized with at least a hundred more people of Lebanese descent.

6. Christian Arab-Americans sometimes leverage their Christian status as a means of avoiding negative stereotyping as Arabs and as a means to gain acceptance as part of the white mainstream (Cainkar 2009: 68, Howell & Shryock 2003:456, Aswad 2002:285).

7. Rural New England is popularly configured as consisting of unspoilt nature and pre-industrial agricultural villages with a “Yankee” population descended from early colonial pioneers—i.e. as one of the whitest parts of the country, as an area devoid of racial or ethnic “others” (cf. Brown 1995, Wood 1997, Lewis 1993, Lindgren 1995, Conforti 2001, Nissenbaum 1996, Harrison 2006).

8. First-generation men who migrated without any female relatives often cooked Lebanese foods for themselves. In a few cases they also worked in restaurant settings and had the opportunity to prepare a few Lebanese dishes in those contexts.

9. This was a typical business for Lebanese immigrants who first traveled through the region as peddlers selling items such as textiles, pots and pans, sewing implements, toiletries, knives, etc.

10. George's Restaurant in Waterville, Maine or Handy's Lunch in Burlington, Vermont.

11. Joseph's Market in Waterville, Maine and Sarkis Market in Brattleboro, Vermont.

12. They most often refer to the bread as ‘Syrian bread,’ and occasionally as khoobz (bread) or khoobz marook (or marouq), meaning mountain bread. It is called Syrian bread because in the early 20th century immigrants from the Ottoman province of Greater Syria (this included modern-day Lebanon) were known as ‘Syrian.’ The immigrants often referred to themselves, and their foods, as Syrian. References to ‘Lebanese’ people, culture, and food became more commonplace by the 1940s.

13. Ovens need to be upwards of 500°F to bake the bread, a challenge for most conventional modern ovens but easily achieved on the old fashioned wood-burning stoves once common in New England homes.

14. These families also go to George's, especially if it is a time of year when the US-Canada border has long waiting times. Montréal is about two hours by car, while George's is closer to a three hour trip (one-way).

15. Here is a rare instance when my informants slip into describing themselves as “Lebanese” around the subject of food.

16. Within the second- and third-generation approximately eighty percent of all marriages were so-called “mixed marriages,” i.e. between someone of Lebanese ancestry and someone with no Lebanese ancestry.

17. A jiddurn (using the pronunciation of my informants), or jurn, is an item used to pound fresh meat to make kibbe (a meat dish, typically a mixture of lamb and beef served either raw (kibbe nayeh) or cooked). Most of the ones I saw were made of heavy granite and were from Lebanon (either brought by migrants or ordered via specialist stores). They are perhaps a foot in diameter and are in effect a huge pestle and mortar; sometimes they are affixed to a wooden stand.

18. Most first-generation Lebanese Maronite Catholics joined Latin rite Catholic parishes across the region because there were too few Maronites to join together to establish a separate parish for those following the Maronite rite.

19. This is how Maron is pronounced—“Maroon.” St. Maron was the monk who is viewed as the founder of the Maronite Church in the 5th century.

20. Source: http://web.mac.com/aboonalj/iWeb/Site/Events/01A74863-FF79-482D-BFE8-5E26572447B4.html. This website was launched after my fieldwork concluded in summer 2006.

21. This is the plural term for a hafli (or hafla) used by the Lebanese in New England; they do not use the Arabic plural form, haflat, but instead the Arabic singular with an English plural modification. A hafli is a communal celebration, a party, and is the term most often employed for special annual gatherings.

22. Interestingly my informants did not distinguish between cookbooks produced commercially for a mass-market and those produced by local parishes. There was more excitement and pride about the parish cookbooks, yet both types were regularly described as legitimate sources of Lebanese food preparation techniques.

23. Examples include: “When you enter a Lebanese home for the first time, upon departure you are given a small bag of sugar or salt” (p. 5); “When a groom carries his bride over the threshold she places raw dough on the top of the outside doorframe. If it sticks, it is good luck” (p.22); “When given a plate of food, never return an empty dish” (p.28).

24. While there is an important linkage between cookbooks as literature being written and used by those in some form of diaspora or exile (Appadurai 1988: 18), production of a church cookbook is fairly common in various New England Christian churches regardless of denomination.

25. The frequency with which Lebanese food is consumed varies greatly from family to family, and at different times of the year. It also depends upon the age and household circumstances of individuals (living alone, away at school, etc.). Everyone in the study eats Lebanese food at least a few times a month, and they contrast this with the idea that their Lebanese ancestors ate Lebanese food daily.

26. This is operated by Laya who moved from Lebanon in the 1970s to marry an older second-generation man from Waterville. Now a widow, she runs the business with the assistance of her brother and daughter.

27. This establishment is partly run by staff from Bishop's Restaurant, which served a mix of Lebanese and American fare, in Lawrence, MA which closed down in 2001.

28. People of Lebanese descent are described as “genetically” predisposed to this food, as physically designed to be able to eat it (“We can stomach it”) and/or as capable of eating it because they have developed an ability to do so (“We were raised eating it, so we can handle it”).