Armenian Families Research Articles

Heritabilities of symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression in earthquake exposed Armenian families

To examine the heritabilities of symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, depression, and the shared genetic component of these symptoms among family members exposed to the 1988 Spitak earthquake in Armenia. Two hundred members of 12 multigenerational families exposed to the Spitak earthquake were studied using a battery that assessed earthquake exposure and symptoms of PTSD, anxiety, and depression. Heritabilities of these phenotypes were determined using variance component analyses and shared genetic vulnerabilities between these phenotypes were determined using bivariate analyses. Heritabilities were as follows: PTSD symptoms 41% (P<0.001), anxiety symptoms 61% (P<0.001), and depressive symptoms 66% (P<0.001). The genetic correlation (rhog>0) of PTSD symptoms with anxiety symptoms was 0.75 (P<0.001) and with depressive symptoms it was 0.71 (P<0.001). The genetic correlation of anxiety with depressive symptoms was 0.54 (P<0.001). The heritabilities found in this multigenerational family study indicate that the genetic make-up of some individuals renders them substantially more vulnerable than others to develop symptoms of PTSD, anxiety, and depression. A large proportion of the genetic liability for PTSD, anxiety, and depression are shared. The findings offer promise for identifying susceptibility genes for these phenotypes.

Storytelling: Armenian Family Albums in the Diaspora

Armenians were scattered across the world after experiencing the collective pain of massacres and deportation from Turkey in 1915. They are an example of a people who have lived through loss and the brutalities of history. In this article, I trace one response to enduring loss: the role of photograph albums in capturing such historical ruptures. For scholars concerned with life stories, family photos and records serve both as goads to recollection and as aids to their certification. “Seeing” other pasts obviates somehow our requirement for complete recollection from our interviewees. Yet our sense of other people's pasts involves more than this. At times photos portray only frozen, static moments cut off from their lived experiences. At other times these albums are a verification of presence in history. All the sorrows of life can be borne if only we can make them into stories. Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen)

Illiteracy, ill-literacy and literacy among Western Armenians: En route from the Near East to the West, from the 1950s until today

Based on observations of a post-Ottoman Armenian family and their network of relatives and friends made over more than fifteen years, this article scrutinizes the switch from an almost exclusively oral to a predominantly written world of perception, expression, and communication. Far from being solely an impediment to social life in the Western world, social and cognitive skills acquired in the Ottoman popular culture and inherited by the family's new generations proved helpful in new places and new settings. Though changes occur over generations, these are relatively slow and are still in progress. The common Ottoman Armenian heritage, including the Armenian language still link together a group of relatives scattered over three continents, be it in a frail way.

Hajdu‐Cheney syndrome: Report of a family and a short literature review

We report three members of an Armenian family with Hajdu-Cheney syndrome. The history suggested that five other members of the family were also probably affected. This disorder is important for the radiologist because distinctive radiographic findings make the diagnosis possible before clinical signs and symptoms are fully developed. Additionally, radiographic examination is essential in all patients suspected of Hajdu-Cheney syndrome for confirmation of the clinical diagnosis. Radiographic examination also detects complications of the syndrome not evident on clinical examination.

The world on a plate: a tour through the history of America's ethnic cuisines

Traces the colorful culinary history of immigrants and the impact that their native foods and unique neighborhoodsfrom New York Citys Lower East Side to New Orleans Italian Quarterhas had on American folk culture. During the Depression, the Colombosians, an Armenian family, began bottling and selling the yogurt they made on their small Massachusetts dairy farm. They labeled their bottles Colombo because nobody could pronounce their name. The Colombo story, the journey of ethnic food from exotic product to everyday item, has become legendary. The World on a Plate tells the story of the Colombosians and other immigrant families who have changed and influenced our food and created a uniquely American culinary pastiche. Joel Denker, a longtime food and travel writer and scholar of American folklore, has conducted fascinating interviews with a range of ethnic-food merchants, crafting a history of our colorful food makers the grocers, vendors, manufacturers, importers, restaurateurs and the products they have given us.

ʿAbbasid Suzerainty in the Medieval Caucasus: Appropriation and Adaptation of Iconography and Ideology

This paper investigates the ʿAbbasid court's development and dissemination of a specific visual expression of power in the Christian states of the Caucasus, and how that visual expression was in turn adapted in the ceremonial and art of the non-Muslim recipients. The shared features of the ʿAbbasid ceremonial recognitions, as reported by contemporary non-Muslim historians, indicate that the caliphate employed a standard ceremony in its vassal states. These ceremonies differ from those accorded to Islamic military generals and favored court officials only in the type of gifts presented. The article closes with an exploration of how the two most powerful Armenian families characterized and differentiated their rule through the way in which they used ʿAbbasid ceremonial and displayed ʿAbbasid gifts.

The Role of Language, Parents, and Peers in Ethnic Identity Among Adolescents in Immigrant Families

To construct a model of the influences on ethnic identity among adolescents in immigrant families, we surveyed adolescents and their parents from 81 Armenian families, 47 Vietnamese families, and 88 Mexican families. Adolescents completed measures of ethnic language proficiency, in-group peer social interaction, and ethnic identity. Parents completed a measure of support for cultural maintenance. Across all groups, ethnic language proficiency and in-group peer interaction predicted ethnic identity, and parental cultural maintenance predicted adolescent ethnic language proficiency. However, because of differences among the groups, a separate model was required for each ethnic group. The results suggest both common processes and group differences in the factors that influence ethnic identity.

A High-Resolution Genetic Map of the Familial Mediterranean Fever Candidate Region Allows Identification of Haplotype-Sharing among Ethnic Groups

Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is a recessive disorder of inflammation caused by mutations in a gene (designatedMEFV) on chromosome 16p13.3. We have recently constructed a 1-Mb cosmid contig that includes the FMF critical region. Here we show genotype data for 12 markers from our physical map, including 5 newly identified microsatellites, in FMF families. Intrafamilial recombinations placedMEFVin the ∼285 kb betweenD16S468/D16S3070andD16S3376.We observed significant linkage disequilibrium in the North African Jewish population, and historical recombinants in the founder haplotype placedMEFVbetweenD16S3082andD16S3373(∼200 kb). In smaller panels of Iraqi Jewish, Arab, and Armenian families, there were significant allelic associations only forD16S3370andD16S2617among the Armenians. A sizable minority of Iraqi Jewish and Armenian carrier chromosomes appeared to be derived from the North African Jewish ancestral haplotype. We observed a unique FMF haplotype common to Iraqi Jews, Arabs, and Armenians and two other haplotypes restricted to either the Iraqi Jewish or the Armenian population. These data support the view that a few major mutations account for a large percentage of the cases of FMF and suggest that some of these mutations arose before the affected Middle Eastern populations diverged from one another.

Danger passes, but psychological effects remain: Armenian family lives through 2 quakes

GLENDALE, Calif. — Varauzhan Aladadyan fears for his family and himself. He seems resigned to the perceived likelihood that they9ll all meet an untimely death. This is the life, Aladadyan said, placing his hand on the shoulder of his 9-year-old daughter, Adrine. She uses a wheelchair because she was disabled recently when she was struck by a car near their home.

Genetic marker family studies in familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) in Armenians

Familial Mediterranean fever is an autosomal recessive disease manifested by recurrent short episodes of fever associated with polyserositis. It is common in a variety of Mediterranean and near Eastern populations. The biochemical defect is unknown, and there have been few studies of genetic marker associations or linkage with the disease. We have screened blood samples from members of 14 nuclear Armenian families, the population with the highest known gene frequency, for 19 different polymorphic phenotypic genetic markers. These 14 families included 31 affected and 43 unaffected family members. No association was found with any of the markers studied. Linkage could be excluded at the distance of 0-15% recombination with 14 markers. Linkage could not be excluded with 5 other markers. These results exclude the FMF gene from those portions of the human gene map that are at least 0.5% recombination distance from these 14 genetic markers, and represent the first comprehensive step in the eventual localization and isolation of the FMF gene.

Familial Mediterranean Fever ‐ linkage studies with genetic markers on chromosome 6

Familial Mediterranean Fever (FMF) is an autosomal recessive disease manifested by recurrent short episodes of fever associated with polyserositis. Although the biochemical defect is unknown, there are several immunologic abnormalities which have been described in this disease. To examine critically whether there is linkage between FMF and the immunogenetic region (major histocompatibility complex-MHC) on chromosome 6, including the HLA, BF, and GLO1 loci, blood samples from members of 13 nuclear Armenian families were tested for these genetic markers. These 13 families included 28 affected and 42 unaffected family members. Linkage could be excluded at 7.5% recombination with the HLA ABC and D loci. Linkage could be excluded at 2.5% recombination for GLO1. Linkage could not be excluded with BF individually, but can be rejected based on the haplotype data. No association was found with either BF, GLO1, and HLA DQ alleles. HLA DR4 was found more often in affected cases than in controls; however, after adjusting for the number of antigens tested this was not significant. Our results would appear to exclude the immunogenetic region on chromosome 6 from linkage with FMF in the Armenian population.

Modernization of Family Values and Norms Among Armenians in Sydney

The process of modernization occurs simultaneously at the social structural and the individual-cultural levels in a society. With respect to the latter the principal arena of, as well as the main bulwark against such change is the family, where changes in values, norms and attitudes involve a shift from the more traditional to the more modern. An examination of the degree and direction of these changes allows for a determination of the level of modernization reached and the factors most strongly influencing this process. In this paper the author examines the maintenance of and changes in the traditional structure and values of first generation Armenian immigrant families in Sydney, Australia taking the traditional Armenian family as the point of departure and the contemporary Australian family as the ‘modernized’ end point, an attempt is made to show what and how changes in traditional family values and structure have occurred both prior to migration and since arrival in Australia, and thus the level of modernization reached by these immigrants. In particular, an examination is made of: family type, composition, and household structure; the relationship of children and parents; decision-making within the family; the relationship of husbands and wives. The principal findings of this study indicate that most changes in traditional values occurred prior to migration to Australia, although changes are continuing in Australia which are leading to convergence of Armenian and Australian family values. Consequently, the degree to which Armenians can be considered to be modernized today is attributed not so much to the effects of living in Australia as to the extent their values ‘converged’ with those of Australian society at time of arrival.

Ethnicity and Family Therapy

McGoldrick, Giordano, Therapy with Families in Our Multi-Ethnic Society. Part I: Native American Families. Sutton, Broken Nose, Native American Families, An Overview. Tafoya, Del Vecchio, Back to the Future: An Examination of the Native American Holocaust Experience. Part II: Families of African Origin. Black, Families of African Origin: An Overview. Moore Hines, Boyd-Franklin, African American Families. Brice-Baker, Jamaican Families. Bibb, Casimir, Haitian Families. Mahmoud, African American Muslim Families. Nwadiora, Nigerian Families. Part III: Latino Families Garcia-Preto, Latino Families: An Overview. Bernal, Shapiro, Cuban Families. Falicov, Mexican Families. Garcia-Preot, Puerto Rican Families. Korin, Brazilian Families. Hernandez, Central American Families. Part IV: Asian Families. Lee, Asian Families: An Overview. Lee, Chinese Families. Matusi, Japanese Families. Kim, Korean Families, Leung, Boehnlein, Vietnamese Families. McKenzie? Pollack, Cambodian Families. Peircy et al, Indonesian Families. Santa Rita, Filipino Families. Part V: Middle Eastern Families. Abudabbeh, Middle Eastern Families: An Overview. Jalali, Iranian Families. Simons, Lebanese Families. Dagirmanjian, Armenian Families, Part VI: Asian Indian Families. Almeida, Hindu, Christian and Muslim. Part VII: Families of European Origin. Giordano, McGoldrick, European Families: An Overview. Emery, Amish Families. McGill, Pearce, Anglo Families. De Master, Dutch Families. Langelier, French Canadian Families. Steiner, Wetzel, German Families. Tsemberis, Orfanos, Greek Families. Smith, Hungarian Families. McGoldrick, Irish Families. Giordano, Italian Families. Araujo, Portuguese Families. Erickson, Sinkjaer Simon VIII, Scandinavian Families. Part VIII: Jewish Families. Rosen, Weltman, Jewish Families: An Overview. Fein, Soviet Jewish Families. Fogelman, Israeli Families. Marganoff, Folwarski, Slavic Families: An Overview. Folwarski, Marganoff, Polish Families. Kerr, Slovak Families. Althusen, Russian Families. Krestan, Czech Families.