Storytelling: Ritual, Catharsis and Healing in the Jewish American Experience

Year 1995, Issue: 1, 53 - 56, 01.04.1995

Ayşe Kırtunç

Abstract

Since this a study on storytelling and stories, the formalized oral histories of women that link generations of cultural and material bonds, I would like to start with a personal anecdote. Growing up with children from many different cultural backgrounds and, typically, not savoring or cherishing the experience at the time , I was struck by a trend that marked my Jewish girl friends from all my other friends: These girls referred to their cousins as yengemin kızı my patrilineal or matrilineal uncle's wife's daughter whereas the non-Jewish children would all say amcamın/ dayımın kızı my patrilineal or matrilineal uncle's daughter . I kept wondering why they insisted on making this "mistake." Certainly, it was one's male relatives or those related directly by blood that were "actual relatives." A "yenge," however, was neither of these. It took me a long time to realize that my Jewish friends were consistently using a preference for matrilineal rather than patrilineal bonding because of their internalized cultural differences.

References

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• Glazer, Nathan and Daniel P. Moynihan. Beyond the Melting Pot. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1974.
• Yezierska, Anzia. Bread Givers. 1925. New York: Persea Books, 1975.