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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 4 page essay that examines Robert A. Orsi's study of Italian Catholics living in New York's East Harlem from 1880 to 1950. The writer looks specifically at how the festa of the Madonna substantiated issues of Catholic identity. No other sources cited.
Page Count:
4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khmad115.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
the church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel would be brought down from its niche to lead a procession through the streets of East Harlem, which from 1880 to 1950,
the time period covered by this text, was largely occupied by Italian-Americans. According to Orsi, the festa of the Madonna was very significant in the life of Italian Harlem,
as it helped to identify to the people who they were, as well as what it meant within this community to be Catholic. The festa itself was not unlike the
ones that were celebrated in Italian communities in the Old World, as well as elsewhere in the New World. Orsi describes the celebration in detail, the customs, the extensive celebration,
the devout nature of the first day moved in the following days towards a more secular holiday; however, the significance of this insightful study lies in how the festa
indicates the role of religion in formulating identity for this community. Orsi goes into great detail about the history of the community, the dominance of family and household, the
domus in Italian life, and the role that popular religions places in the new immigrants trying to acclimate themselves to a new environment. Orsi goes on to help the
reader see that the various gestures and postures of the people, as well as the kinds of prayers said, and the way in which they were said, all had specific
meanings when looked at within the overall context of the culture of Italian Harlem. Orsi shows that religious practice in this community was an intricate dance in which all
members of the community played their roles. Orsi paints a vivid picture of communal religious practice in which one sees a "fusion of the sacred and the profane, of the
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