Hunter Street HONR 2701 Midterm Reflection November 2, 2012

One thing that I have learned about Greek culture so far in my inquiry process is that there are many facets of a group that have differing sides to it. I have already come across several dichotomous aspects of Greek life, some that compliment each other and some that directly oppose each other. Among these are the splits between traditional and contemporary culture as well as between authentic Greek and Americanized Greek culture. No matter how well preserved a culture is over the years, there will always be disparities between each successive generation. In what I have witnessed of Greek culture, the differences between generations are not too drastic of deviations from the ways of former generations. Because of this, many aspects of traditional Greek culture can be seen in contemporary Greek culture. This was most clearly demonstrated in the dances at the Greek Festival. While there were distinct variances between the traditional dances and the contemporary dances, they were much more similar than they were different. The relationship between these to eras of performance demonstrates an evolution of their customs over time. The two different styles of dance do not exist separately, but work together to make up Greek performance dancing. While the differing styles of dance acted as complimentary parts of one facet of Greek culture, other differing aspects create a dichotomous relationship. While talking to

the man at the International Festival, I was told that the Greek Festival that I had previously attended is a great way to get a taste of Greek culture, but that taste would be an Americanized version of the real thing. While the exposure that I got at the Greek Festival was my first real experience with the culture, I agree that it felt somewhat Americanized. Because it was an event that is popular among all sorts of people, rather than just Greeks, it was geared towards the general population. Because an American audience, myself included, is more likely to be familiar with the kind of Greece portrayed in popular culture, much of the festival featured these aspects of Greek history so that it would fit the preconceived notions of uninformed spectators. For example, in one display, which portrayed the armies of the ancient Greek City-States, the movie 300 was playing. While this movie does depict events in Greek history, I seriously doubt that very many in the Greek community would consider it an accurate representation of events. I believe that they elected to show this movie because it gave American visitors something that they are more familiar with so that the new information is relatable. I was, however, able to experience an unadulterated aspect of Greek life when I visited the Greek Orthodox Church. The observations I gathered here were authentic ones because the cathedral was made for people of the Greek Orthodox faith to come to worship, rather than for visitors. I felt that even the fact that the building was in the United States did not make it much more American that a church in Greece is, due to the strong insistence that the pamphlets about the Church made that Greek Orthodoxy has remained unchanged over the years. While this experience may have been my most authentic one so far, it is hard to gather much about a culture based primarily on architecture. I found that the most

revealing encounter I have had so far was my conversation with the man at the International Festival. This conversation was so helpful to me in my cultural inquiry process because it allowed me to interact with someone to get his thoughts and perspectives rather than simply being an observer. Talking with him also assisted me in better understanding the significance of what I discovered at each festival and the cathedral. He demonstrated the characteristic that I found to be prevalent in the other experiences: pride of his heritage and eagerness to share his culture with anyone who is interested to learn about it. I have been very fortunate in my inquiry process to find that the people who comprise the culture that I am studying are so willing and excited to share their culture with me. My cultural journey so far has allowed me to experience the complementary and opposing sides of Greek culture, both traditional and contemporary as well as authentic and Americanized. Because I have found that I was able to most effectively examine Greek life by speaking with someone from Greece or of Greek descent, I will make a point to interact directly with people to hear their point of view so that I can truly learn what it means to be Greek.