Reviewed by:

• The Vanishing Greek Americans: A Crisis of Identity by Alice Scourby
• Yiorgos Anagnostou (bio)

The Vanishing Greek Americans: A Crisis of Identity revisits a sociological question that preoccupied Alice Scourby (1926–2009): the place of ethnic identity in high modernity. If identity in the premodern world was given and relatively stable, contemporary identity is in flux. Individuals may distance themselves from previous self-identifications and draw upon available options in their biographies and cultural milieus to fashion alternative, often multiple, identities. For sociologists of ethnicity such as Scourby, this self-becoming makes the cultural ties connecting a group tenuous. A community’s cohesion recedes, and commitment to ethnic institutions attenuates, raising the specter of so-called ethnic devolution and contributing to the cultural demise of the collective. Hence the notion of ethnic identity in crisis.

Turning to this question in the 1980s and 1990s, at a time when scholars were speaking about the “twilight of ethnicity” among European Americans, Scourby situated US Greek ethnicity at the crossroads. She defined Greek Americans as an ethnoreligious group whose institutions produced cohesion and enhanced continuity. Here, Scourby’s main thesis remains unchanged. She asserts that “we continue to see evidence of the enduring function of ethnicity in providing a reference point for a sense of rootedness and belonging” (22). But as early as the 1990s, she expressed concern that prospects for the survival of Greek American culture had begun to “look bleak” (1994, 129). It was this concern that motivated the writing of The Vanishing Greek Americans. Scourby discusses several oft-cited factors contributing to a trajectory of loss: the small number of Greek Americans, assimilation, intermarriage, reduced influx of immigrants, and the movement toward the development of pan-Orthodoxy among Orthodox Christians in the United States. Trends toward secularization and the privatization of identity weaken ethnic ties and pose a challenge to the community’s coherence. Scourby does not lament the community’s [End Page 215] internal diversity, but instead discusses those cultural forces that disempower the group, proposing a comprehensive means of ethnic survival in a rapidly diversifying community. The notion of vanishing expressed in the book’s title works rhetorically to add a sense of urgency to her call for action to reproduce Greek American identity and preserve the collective.

This slim volume consists of six short chapters, a 2008 introduction by the author, and a foreword by historian Alexander Kitroeff. Chapter 1, “The Greek Americans,” identifies the small size of the Greek American demographic—they represent “less than one-half of one percent (0.4)” of the US population—as a source of vulnerability (20). It also discusses Greek Americans in the context of the so-called culture wars of the 1990s, including the Black Athena controversy. Chapter 2, “Greek American Institutions,” identifies ethnic patriarchy as “a community liability” (36) and protests the exclusion of women from leadership positions in major organizations such as the American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association (AHEPA). Scourby notes that AHEPA’s governing board does not “include women who are part of the organization’s Auxiliary wing” (38). One of the strongest chapters in the book is Chapter 3, “The Church,” which draws on the scholarship of Eva Katafygiotou-Topping to make a case for the increased participation of women in liturgical life. Chapter 4, “Community Reverberations Pan-Orthodoxy: A Survey,” discusses Greek Orthodox attitudes regarding the unification of ethnic churches “into one single American Orthodox Church” (63), and also includes a discussion of Greek “ethnic vilification” in the US media. Chapter 5, “An Overview of Greece Past/Present,” features portraits of internationally renowned Greek American and Greek diaspora artists such as Dimitri Mitropoulos, Maria Callas, and C. P. Cavafy as examples of modern Greek achievement outside Greece. The book concludes with Chapter 6, “A Compendium,” which explores a wide assortment of Greek American institutional and cultural matters, including the challenges confronting the Hellenic College/Holy Cross School of Theology, the question of cooperation among Greek Americans, support for Modern Greek studies and the arts, and...

审核人：

• 消失的希腊裔美国人：身份危机艾丽斯·斯考比（Alice Scourby）
• Yiorgos Anagnostou（生物）

消失的希腊裔美国人：身份危机重新审视了爱丽丝·史考比（Alice Scourby，1926–2009年）所关注的社会学问题：种族身份在高度现代性中的地位。如果给定前现代世界的身份并使其相对稳定，那么当代身份就会不断变化。个人可能会与以前的自我身份保持距离，并利用自己的传记和文化环境中的可用选项来选择替代身份，通常是多个身份。对于Scourby这样的种族社会学家来说，这种自我形成使连接群体的文化纽带变得微弱。社区的凝聚力减弱，对种族制度的承诺减弱，增加了所谓种族下放的幽灵，并为集体的文化灭亡作出了贡献。因此，危机中的族裔认同概念。

在1980年代和1990年代，当这个问题转向学者讨论欧洲人中“种族的暮光之城”的时候，斯科尔比将美国希腊族置于十字路口。她将希腊裔美国人定义为一个种族宗教团体，其机构产生了凝聚力并增强了连续性。在这里，史考比的主要论点保持不变。她断言：“我们继续看到种族在提供扎根感和归属感的参考点方面具有持久作用的证据”（22）。但是早在1990年代，她就对希腊裔美国人文化的生存前景开始“黯淡”表示担忧（1994，129）。正是这种关注促使《消失的希腊美国人》的写作。Scourby讨论了造成损失轨迹的几种常见因素：少数希腊裔美国人，同化，通婚，减少的移民涌入以及美国东正教徒中泛正教运动的发展。世俗化和身份私有化的趋势削弱了种族联系，对社区的凝聚力构成了挑战。Scourby并没有为社区的[End Page 215]感到遗憾。内部多样性，而是讨论那些削弱该群体权能的文化力量，并提出在迅速多元化的社区中全面生存的种族生存手段。书名中表达的消失的概念在言辞上颇为夸张，为她呼吁采取行动重现希腊裔美国人的身份并维护集体的需求增加了紧迫感。

这本小巧的书共包括六个短章，作者2008年的简介以及历史学家亚历山大·基特罗夫（Alexander Kitroeff）的前言。第1章“希腊裔美国人”将脆弱的人口来源识别为希腊裔美国人的一小部分，他们占美国人口的“不到一半（0.4％）的一半”（20）。它还在包括黑人雅典娜（Black Athena）在内的1990年代所谓的文化战争的背景下讨论了希腊裔美国人。争议。第2章“希腊美国机构”将族裔家长制确定为“社区责任”（36），并抗议将妇女排除在美国希腊进步教育协会（AHEPA）等主要组织的领导职务中。Scourby指出，AHEPA理事会不“包括该组织辅助部门中的女性”（38）。该书中最强的章节之一是第3章“教堂”，该书借鉴了Eva Katafygiotou-Topping的奖学金，为妇女更多地参与礼仪生活提供了依据。第4章，“泛正统的社区回响：调查”，讨论了希腊东正教关于将种族教会“合并为一个美国东正教教会”的态度（63），还包括在美国媒体上讨论希腊的“种族歧视”。第5章“希腊的过去/现在概述”以国际知名的希腊裔美国人和希腊侨民艺术家（例如Dimitri Mitropoulos，Maria Callas和CP Cavafy）的肖像作为希腊境外现代希腊成就的例子。本书以第六章“纲要”作为结尾，探讨了各种希腊裔美国人的制度和文化问题，包括希腊学院/圣十字学院的挑战，希腊裔美国人之间的合作问题，对现代的支持。希腊研究和艺术，以及... 玛丽亚·卡拉斯（Maria Callas）和CP卡瓦菲（CP Cavafy）作为希腊以外希腊现代成就的典范。本书以第六章“纲要”作为结尾，探讨了各种希腊裔美国人的制度和文化问题，包括希腊学院/圣十字学院的挑战，希腊裔美国人之间的合作问题，对现代的支持。希腊研究和艺术，以及... 玛丽亚·卡拉斯（Maria Callas）和CP卡瓦菲（CP Cavafy）作为希腊以外希腊现代成就的典范。本书以第六章“纲要”作为结尾，探讨了各种希腊裔美国人的制度和文化问题，包括希腊学院/圣十字学院的挑战，希腊裔美国人之间的合作问题，对现代的支持。希腊研究和艺术，以及...