Examples of Heritage Consistency
The factors that constitute heritage consistency are listed in Table 2–2. The fol- lowing are examples of each factor:
1. The person’s childhood development occurred in the person’s coun- try of origin or in an immigrant neighborhood in the United States of like ethnic group. The person was raised in a specific ethnic neighborhood, such as Italian, Black, Hispanic, or Jewish, in a given part of a city and was exposed to only the culture, language, foods, and customs of that group.
2. Extended family members encouraged participation in traditional religious and cultural activities. The parents sent the person to religious school, and most social activities were church-related.
3. The individual engages in frequent visits to the country of origin or returns to the “old neighborhood” in the United States. The desire to return to the old country or to the old neighborhood is prevalent in many people; however, many people, for various reasons, cannot return. The people who came here to escape religious persecution or whose families were killed during world wars or the Holocaust may not want to return to Euro- pean homelands. Other reasons people may not return to their native country include political conditions in the homeland and lack of relatives or friends in that land.