1. 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
2. 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 often
reflect 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
3. 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.
4. 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
5. 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
6. 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
7. Photo 2. Living room decorations
Photo 3. More elephant statues in living room
8. 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)
9. 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
10. Photo 9. More decorations in
guest room
Photo 10. Decoration with Bengali
writing in guest room
12. 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
13. 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
14. Photo 17. Personal altar of the mother with Catholic religious material in her closet
Photo 18. Dinning
room painting
15. 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
16. Photo 21. Kitchen pantry with Asian
ingredients
Photo 22. Asian ingredients
