A Time of Homecoming

Humanities Interpretations

Scholars in a wide variety of humanities fields—including history, anthropology, literary criticism, folklore, and many others—have grappled with the homecoming theme, as they have with other aspects of the holiday.

We offer excerpts below from a number of such works; where possible, we provide a link to the entire work, and at the very least provide the reference so that you can find it in a library.

As with the rest of this prototype Web site, this is a work in progress. Indeed, it's a project still in its infancy. We'd love to hear from you about other materials you know about, in this or other categories, so we can build them into the site. To send us an email, click here; or phone 434 924-9946.



"Easing the dislocation of the industrial and commercial revolutions..." (Elizabeth Pleck, 1999)
Historian Elizabeth Pleck analyzes the homecoming aspect of the holiday in an essay about the shift of Thanksgiving celebrations over time from a variety of social festivals,often quite rowdy, to a domestic ritual whose epicenter was located squarely in the family home. The essay, "The Making of the Domestic Occasion: The History of Thanksgiving in the United States," was published in the Journal of Social History, Summer 1999, pp. 773-89. The following excerpt is from pp. 775-6.

As a holiday of "family homecoming," Thanksgiving eased the social dislocations of the industrial and commercial revolutions. The ritual of returning home at Thanksgiving, "when the fledged birds once more flew back to the mother nest," made it possible to reconcile individualism and obligation to family." (Note 1). A man could be self-made and an obedient son, so long as he reunited with his family for Thanksgiving. The family homecoming also affirmed the importance of the extended family at a time when large-scale migration from New England had weakened kin ties. The ideal of Thanksgiving as a holiday of family reunion emerged at the height of the ideology of domesticity that made the home into a secular shrine. Sarah Josepha Hale thought the holiday established the importance of "the gratified hospitality, the obliging civility and unaffected happiness" of the American family. (Note 2)

Note 1: Caroline Howard King, When I Lived in Salem, 1822-1866 (Brattleboro, Vt., 1937), p. 108.

Note 2: Sarah Josepha Hale, Northwood; or Life North and South (New York, 1852), p. 91.

Homecoming and the "simple virtues of the past..." (Janet Siskind, 1992)
Anthropologist Janet Siskind looks at homecoming as one of a constellation of facets that together have made the modern Thanksgiving holiday. Her essay, "The Invention of Thanksgiving: A Ritual of American Nationality," was published in the journal Critique of Anthropology, 12:2 (1992) , pp. 167-91. The following excerpt is from p. 176.

By the mid 19th-century, Thanksgiving had become associated with homecoming (Note 1). The simple virtues of the past were merged with the return home to the rural family farm and the rural extended family. Returning home for Thanksgiving was both a metaphor and a ritual performance of solidarity, renewing or validating family ties. In 1858, "it was reliably estimated that upwards of 10,000 people left New York City to spend the holiday in New England." (Note 2)

Note 1: James Baker, Director of Museum Operations, Plimouth Plantation; personal communication with the author, 1989.

Note 2: Diane Karter Appelbaum, Thanksgiving: An American Holiday, an American History (New York: Facts on File, 1984), p. 76.