| Ohio, the first state created from the old Northwest Territory, has always been considered typically American. As with most of the northern U.S., late nineteenth-century European migration into a land long occupied by nations of Native Americans was important in the development of Ohio society. Immigrants, whether from Northern Europe, Eastern Europe, or the Mediterranean, have created culture clashes as they brought different ways of life to the state, including distinctive ethnic foodways shaped by centuries of life in the economic and social milieu of Europe. These culture clashes, including the efforts by social workers and teacher to change what immigrants ate in Federally mandated cooking classes, as well as the process of assimilation, reveal a great deal not only about the immigrants, but about the Anglo-Saxons who were the first European settlers. A variety of sources aid the historian in uncovering the food customs of the past and their meaning. The present work concerns itself with what the foodways of immigrants reveal about culture, in three main areas: social structure, economics, and belief systems. |
