The purpose of this research is to provide a cultural genogram of the Panos family in the United States. This text will explain the muiltigenerational family structure and will include background information that may help illuminate the figure that appears on the last page of this report.
There is no doubt that my family history and ethnic culture have had an impact on the shape of my life. The big picture of that history is that of a definite pattern of change and increased acculturation to the mainstream social and cultural norms of white America. However, even within that pattern of change, the family bonds have been strong enough to transmit down the generations a definite sense of price and of distinctive identity anchored in the world-historical culture of Greece.
The Panos family history in the United States is quite short, when considered in the scheme of the history of the United States as a whole. However, the history of the extended family in Greece in previous generations explains much about how that history was structured and may even have the effect of forecasting possible lines of development in the future. Reference has been made to the family's distinctively Greek identity; however, that identity was Americanized soon after my parents immigrated to the US, from Panayiotakopoulos to Panos.
The Panos family is highly traditional in structure in this age of the so-called nontraditional family. As the firstborn of all of my cousins, I have inherited many of the conservative family values of my parents compared to my cousins. On the other hand, I tend to be more politically and socially moderate and tolerant than my grandfather, parents, and uncles and aunts. That may owe something to the fact that I was born in the early years of the postwar baby boom. One feature of the family that has been largely unchanged through its generations in America is its religious orientation. The family religion is Greek-Orthodox, an...