The Slovak-American "Swaddling Ethos": Homeostat for Family Dynamics and Cultural Continuity

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Abstract
This paper explores the systemic relationships among cultural ethos, family dynamics, personality configuration, and child-rearing patterns among multigeneration Slovak-Americans. The "swaddling ethos" is posited to serve as a homeostat whose regulatory function can be discerned through the analysis of family structure and process, in particular through the explication of values, affective patterns, roles, boundaries, and structural units within the family. The core of the ethos is a dependency-security complex that attaches the individual to an extended family network of obligation, indebtedness, and reciprocity (ethnic, Slovak); induces rebellion against such attachment (mainstream American); and undermines efforts toward separation-individuation, resulting in the perpetuation of an ethnic tradition.