ABSTRACT
Attachment to the family is strong and enduring; frequently noted are cohesion and importance of kinship, ties in both the Greek-American and native Greek family. Proxenia reflects the Greek attitude that a life-long commitment such as marriage is something too important to be based upon the emotional impulses of individuals with little life experience. Like the Greek family in general, marriage is viewed as a relationship of duty and responsibility. The extended kin relationship is further suggested by Greek terms referring to affinal relationships for which no corresponding English terms exist; for example, simpetheros and simpithera, referring to the two sets of in-laws of a couple. These ties can be through blood relationship, marriage, or even fictive; kin relationships so distant they would go completely unrecognized in American society are recognized and respected—and relished- by the Greeks. The traditional Greek view of marriage, prevalent through the second generation, is an unromantic one.
