essay
Cult and occult in Italian-American culture: the persistence of a religious heritage
Immigrants and religion in urban America • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Published In 1977 • Pages: 25-47
By: Vecoli, Rudolph J..
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This is a brief study of some of the salient features of Italian American religion as it existed in the mid-1970s. Beginning with a description of the folk religion of the CONTADINI (peasants from southern Italy -- the area from which most Italians migrated --) Vecoli notes both changes and elements of stability in the religion since its first introduction to America in the late 19th or early 20th centuries. Of particular interest is the clash between the American Protestant and Catholic churches and the Italian church. Vecoli also notes various elements of the traditional 'folk religion' still persisting among Italian Americans including belief in witchcraft, the evil eye, and magic.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Acculturation and culture contact
- Sociocultural trends
- Sorcery
- General character of religion
- Magic
- Religious denominations
- Religious intolerance and martyrs
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Italian Americans
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2000
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- North America
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Regional, Ethnic and Diaspora Cultures
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- essay
- Evaluation
- Creator TypesThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Historian
- Indigenous Person
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- John Beierle ; 1991
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- No date
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- not specified
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- United States
- NotesAdditional notes
- [by] Rudolph John Vecoli
- Includes bibliography
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 76062866
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Italian Americans