Food and family are the foundation of Arab and Arab-American culture. For Arab immigrants, the family is the most important social and economic institution. Early immigrants worked very hard and lived modestly to send money to relatives in their country of origin, often referred to as the “old country. Once financially secure, these immigrants brought their immediate and extended families to the United States; in some cases entire Arab villages were reunited on American shores. Permanent immigrants helped newcomers adjust to life in the United States by providing a social cushion, helping them find jobs and housing until they became self-sufficient. Food is also an essential element of cultural identity. Certain foods mark important cultural and religious events.
Customs focus on hospitality in food, interaction with family and friends, and the desire to live near relatives. Arab Americans are generally negative about dating and premarital sex, especially for women. Educational achievement and economic progress are viewed positively, as are maintaining strong family ties and maintaining women’s chastity and fidelity. Arab-American perceptions of the United States are extremely positive, especially with regard to the availability of economic opportunities and political freedoms.
A common American stereotype of Arabs emphasizes that they are, by definition, Muslim and therefore bloodthirsty, bigoted, and anti-Western. Another misconception is that Iranians are Arabs, whereas most Iranians are Persians who speak Farsi, an Indo-European language that uses Arabic script. Arabic, on the other hand, belongs to the Semitic language family. Other misconceptions and stereotypes include: Arabs are desert nomads; however, only two percent of modern Arab society is nomadic; and Arabs oppress women. Although there are fewer formal laws protecting women’s equality in Arab countries than in the United States, the prevalence of rape and physical abuse of women seems to be lower in the Arab world than in American society.
Stereotypes of Arab culture and society abound in Western literary works, academic studies, news and entertainment media. Typical of the fiction genre is Leon Uris’ famous novel “Exodus” (1958), which repeatedly portrays the Arab country of Palestine as a “barren, sluggish, dying land.” The Arabs who oppose the creation of the State of Israel are described as “scum of humanity, thieves, murderers, highway robbers, drug dealers and white slave traders. More generally, Arabs are “dirty,” “devious,” and “corrupt. Uris reinforced these characteristics in his 1985 work Hajj. Mistaken Identity: Arab Stereotypes in Popular Literature (1985). A study of the cultural antecedents of Arab and Muslim stereotypes in Western culture can be found in Edward W. Said’s widely acclaimed work “Orientalism” (1978). Media coverage is critiqued in Said’s book “Coverage of Islam” (1981); television depictions of Arabs are examined in Jack Shaheen’s “An Arab on Television” (1984).
CUISINE
The most pronounced dietary prescription followed by Muslim Arabs is the religious prohibition against eating pork. Many Arab Christians also disdain eating pork, but for cultural reasons. Muslims are required to consume ritually slaughtered meat (halal). In response to the growing demand for halal meat, many enterprising Arab-American grocers have opened halal markets in recent years.
Arab Americans have a distinctive cuisine based on lamb, rice, bread and heavily seasoned dishes. The Middle Eastern diet consists of many ingredients not found in the average American cuisine, such as chickpeas, lentils, beans, ground sesame oil, olive oil, olives, feta cheese, dates and figs. Many Arab dishes, such as stuffed zucchini or green peppers, stuffed grape or cabbage leaves, are very labor intensive to prepare.
TRADITIONAL COSTUMES
Arab Americans wear almost no items of traditional clothing. The exception is the tendency of some immigrant women, especially peasant women, to wear traditional clothing. Among the most dramatic are the colorfully embroidered dresses worn by some Palestinian women in parts of Detroit and Dearborn. More common are the monochrome headscarves worn by many Lebanese and other Arab Muslim women. Some Arab and other Muslim women sometimes wear long, shapeless dresses, commonly called Islamic headscarves, in addition to the headscarf.