Culturae Materia
Materiality, Intergenerational Conflict, and the Negotiation of Belonging in Migrant Families
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8925129 |
|---|---|
| Authors | F I M Poppi (0000-0002-0731-3099, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Pages | 1-18 |
| Publication date | 2026-03-19 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Ethnos (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0014-1844 • E-ISSN: 1469-588X |
| Publisher | Routledge (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/00141844.2026.2646878 |
| OpenAlex | W7138846087 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 68 |
Intergenerational conflict in migrant families often unfolds through material arenas – objects, artifacts, and spaces – where cultural heritage and adaptation intersect. Yet migration studies still privilege values, norms, and talk over the material infrastructures that mediate everyday life. This article draws on extended ethnographic fieldwork with a Lebanese family running a long-established Italian restaurant in northern Italy to show how material culture operates as an active site of negotiation. The analysis develops five axes of intergenerational conflict in material practice through which foodways become both medium and battleground for identity, legitimacy, and modernity. Minute decisions about ingredients, techniques, and presentation recalibrate cultural boundaries and authority structures within the family and in the restaurant’s public positioning. By foregrounding food-related material culture as more than contextual backdrop, the study offers an analytical framework that may be useful for examining how migrant families negotiate the intertwined demands of heritage preservation, economic survival, and host-society recognition.
Ethnic group · Ethnography · Immigration · Negotiation · Precarity · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · Interdisciplinary Cultural and Social Studies
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| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |