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Joyce Weng

December 8, 2008
All Our Kin Paper
Cultural Anthropology
Dr. Brook

Carol B. Stack wrote an anthropological ethnography on a Black


community in the United States, titled All Our Kin. It is based in a
place she calls The Flats, which is located in the Chicago area. She
uses effective research tools to help her gain better knowledge of the
people who live there. Although to be clear, Stack is not reporting on
Black Americans but she is concentrating her study on the poor
residents of The Flats, who happen to have a mostly Black
demographic. While simultaneously attacking a stereotype of the poor
and providing a more multifaceted explanation for how people survive
in The Flats. Some of the areas of society that she covers are practices
including “swapping,” “personal kindred” relationships, “child
keeping,” and the tradition of “domestic network.” She also details the
relationships between men and women, the dynamics of how
obligations are met in The Flats, while providing her views on how
poverty could potentially be eliminated.
An external description of what one would see when coming
upon the streets within The Flats calls for attention towards the small,
privately owned shops, bars, and churches, among other small
establishments. There is garbage and used cars taking up the streets.
The large number of unkempt property compounds this image. For
example, windows left unrepaired and paint peeling from houses make
up the landscape. (Page 3) Within these homes, there are large
families with different schedules going on all around the clock. Rarely,
does the opportunity arise for all members of the household to have a
meal together. Meanwhile, it is not uncommon that a certain type of
void is often filled with sounds from a television and music constantly
playing the background. (Page 6) Also within these homes, there is an
incredibly lack of privacy, as living space tends to be crowded. The
typical lack of privacy makes individual, physical space a highly
desirable thing. (Page 7) On most days, residents of The Flats spend
time with friends and family, if they are not at work. (Page 15)
Outside in the streets, it is observable that people use walking as the
main mode of transportation all year round. (Page 16)
As far as the less evident ways of interpersonal interactions, it
will also become clear that reciprocity is expected and part of anyone’s
daily life in The Flats. With a considerable number of unemployed
people and small salaries for those who do work, the jobs are still
either seasonal or short-term positions, at best. (Page 23 – 24) Even
within their own community, the Black residents of The Flats combat
“economic racism” from those who are White and in the position to do
so. (Which in most cases the racists are White people, who give the
Black residents the run around. For example, a landlord accepting new
tenants may not easily accept those whom they have prejudices
against.) (Page 25) While as a result, the Black residents of The Flats
mostly experience “double-consciousness.” This is the diametrically
opposing roles of having to live one life within a developed culture of
their own and being a minority in a country dominated by White
people. (Page 26) Returning to interpersonal relationships within The
Flats, there is “domestic cooperation” through the development of
“socially recognized kin ties.” (Page 28 – 29) Another apparent issue
that can be discovered through simple interactions with the residents
in The Flats is that the families are constructed on a matrifocal model.
That is, kinship is traced back through the females of the family. (Page
31)
More in depth observation concerning how the residents of The
Flats interact with the white population to meet the needs of daily
living, shows that they encounter racism and difficult obstacles to
achieve basic and necessary tasks. For example, doctors who care for
Blacks would schedule appointments at inconvenient hours, so that
their White clients would take precedent and not have to be in contact,
even just in passing, with their Black clients. (Page 3) Even the
facilities that specifically handle low-income patients offer less than
competent services and so, few take advantage of going to the doctor,
if it can be avoided. Furthermore, in one incident with a woman
named Eloise, a blatant display of prejudice was seen through the way
her caseworker treated her at the welfare office. She offered little help
and the efforts that she did make to help Eloise obtain a new
apartment were with reluctance and rudeness. (Page 17 -18) In the
same incident, Carol Stack found it difficult to help Eloise obtain a
house, as landlords simply turned them away with excuses, saying
they were already taken. One landlord demanded what Stack implied
was an unreasonable number of references. Even then, it did not work
out well because of the poor conditions of the place, it was soon
declared condemned. (Page 20) The most horrifying form of racism
was that which was carried out by the police. They abused their power
and as the system goes, allowed the police to get away with murder.
There was one specific case, where two policemen shot and killed two
Black residents who were of no danger of harming himself or herself or
anyone else. (Page 4) Racism and the lack of trust runs rampant
between the Blacks and the Whites in the streets of The Flats.
Carol Stack’s research techniques used to learn about the
residents in The Flats included time spent deliberately observing and
interviewing the people. (Page 9) She also participated in daily
activities as a way of spending time with the people. For example, she
helped a woman named Ruby with the laundry when she first started
studying the people who lived there. (Page 12) Stack also practiced
the customary ways in which people interacted with their peers. She
talked tough, which made the new people she met feel more
comfortable. (Page 15) She also used tools, like buying a car but then
also blended back into life with the average resident by getting rid of
the car. (Page 17, 20) Finally, Stack obtained a higher status when
Ruby said she was a sister of hers. (Page 21) She also specified her
target focus on “family life among second-generation urban dwellers.”
(Page 27) Additionally, she displayed signs of “mutual trust” by
allowing her son to play with the children of the people she was
studying. (Page 28 – 29) Finally, Stack had several informants, which
allowed her to build a big picture from multiple perspectives, which
would allow her to have a more accurate wealth of information. (Page
31) These are all appropriate ways to go about researching a
community. Turnbull basically used the same techniques with the
BaMbuti people. Both anthropologists used a nonjudgmental and a
non-evasive way to accurately obtain new knowledge of the people
they were studying in an honest way.
In the first couple of chapters, Stack makes it clear that O. Lewis’
ideology of the “culture of poverty” is incomplete. (Page 23) Mainly, it
is important to rid of the misconception “that the social adaptation of
the poor to conditions of poverty would fall apart if these conditions
were altered.” (Page 23) In other words, Stack believes it is not the
poor’s fault that makes or keeps them poor. The poor are capable of
achieving success if they were not limited to these less than optimal
job opportunities that keep them in poverty. “Ryan argues that we
cannot blame the victim for his shortcomings.” (Page 24) However, it
is in the interest of people in higher economic classes to keep other
people poor, so that the opportunity for an abundance of cheap labor is
available to them. It is crucial that a method is developed to liberate
the poor from a destiny of poverty because it is not a culture that is
shared and learned. But poverty is evidence that such establishments
like welfare keep the poor in poverty. Additionally, the poor faces such
challenges like poor educational opportunities, bad health care,
unbalanced legal representation, and poor housing situations. There
should also be a distinction made between the Black culture and
people who are poor.
Within the community in The Flats, “swapping” is the primary
means by which “distribution and exchange of limited resources
available to the poor” is passed around. (Page 33) In essence, it is a
form of trade. Ruby Banks’ quote, “what goes round comes round”
represents what Stack calls “the rhythm of exchange.” (Page 42) That
is, it is a form reciprocity among the residents in The Flats, which
everyone relies on to survive. “Swapping” allow people to maintain
basic needs like having food each day, despite the unfair scale of high
priced rent, utilities, and necessities in the inner city. It relies on the
“collective power within kin-based exchange networks” to achieve
survival. (Page 33) People cannot be distrustful or else they will never
meet their own needs because they cannot cope on their own. (Page
39) “Swapping” is the most common way for people to interact and
build relationships with each other. “In the process of exchange,
people become immersed in a domestic web of a large number of
kinfolk who can be called upon for help and who can bring others into
the network.” (Page 44) In this sense, “swapping” is not only a coping
skill for survival but also functions as a building block to achieve strong
social ties that connect other members of the community. It allows
everyone to help each other make ends meet, if everyone works
together.
A “personal kindred” is usually a member of the family on the
mother’s side of the family. This includes spouses who marry into the
mother’s side of the child’s family. (Page 49) If the father is present in
the upbringing of the child, only then, does “personal kinship network”
also include the father and his side of the family. (Page 50) “Personal
kindreds” help take care of the child and that is the primary concern.
However, they are also made up of “the people who are socially
recognized as having reciprocal responsibilities.” (Page 55) A
“personal kindred” is obligated to participate in having “claims on one
another” (Page 61) In chapter four; Stack discusses the duty of
fathers. One option for men when a woman gets pregnant is to deny
he is the father. At this point, the community tolerates this as an
acceptable thing to do. (Page 51) While, the other option is to accept
responsibility to help raise the child. Although, “kinship through males
is reckoned through a chain of social recognition.” (Page 52) That is,
maternity takes priority and paternity and is only acknowledged if all
parties consent to the idea. Yet another option is when the mother
starts a relationship with another man who unofficially takes on her
children from previous unions as his own. At which point, terms like
“play daddy” develops for the surrogate father and can last throughout
the child’s lifetime. (Page 59) Men in The Flats have difficulty
maintaining a conservative father figure role for their children because
secured jobs are hard to come by. Therefore, they are usually unable
to support the family.
In chapter five, “child keeping” is described, as “the expansion
and contraction of households, and the successive recombination of
kinsmen residing together, require adults to care for the children
residing in their household.” (Page 62) Depending on whom the child
resides with, influences the social rights to a child, as well as, the
requirements that a kinsmen must meet to be “entitled to parental
roles.” (Page 63) Children are also part of the reciprocity practice, as
it counts as a favor in terms of service provided. (Page 66) Sharing
authority and custody of children is an adjustment to poverty because
it is more functional to allow others to help raise the children born to
young mothers who may not be ready to care for a baby. The child’s
best interest always takes priority over whichever kinsmen he or she
may stay with. Moreover, the money given to mothers to raise a child
is shared among all the homes, so that the “wealth” is spread around
to more people, rather than just allocated to one nucleus family. (Page
69)
Furthermore, a “domestic network” is the home life fueled by a
“cooperative organization of people linked…” in order to “demonstrate
the stability and collective power of the family life in The Flats.” (Page
90) It is made up of people whom a person can rely upon for basic
necessities or desired commodities. (Page 93) It is comprised of a
“kin-structured” model. (Page 94) The purpose of a “domestic
network” is to cope with the “external pressures affecting the daily
lives of the poor.” (Page 91) While “domestic networks” and
“domestic groups” share one similarity, they are generally different.
They both consist ideally of three generations. Albeit, “domestic
networks are not visible groups, because they do not have an obvious
nucleus or defined boundary.” (Page 94) Again, the duties that a
“domestic network” achieves are the care for young children and to
face financial burdens with the help of others. The creation of
“domestic networks” is a direct, adaptive result of living in poverty.
This is because landlords, for example, know the poor must relocate on
numerous occasions because of financial distress. Therefore, “in times
of need, the only predictable resources that can be drawn upon are
their own children and parents, and the fund of kin and friends
obligated to them.” (Page 107) It is an organized way of knowing
whom to rely on in times of crisis.
A brief description of the association among men and women will
show a rather hostile and unfriendly climate, however necessary it may
be within the conditions in The Flats. Men’s interactions with women
are described as “exploitive.” Most men do not only practice it but
also expect similar treatment of women by other men. (Page 108)
Meanwhile, “women tend to debase men and especially young boys,
regarding them as inherently ‘bad,’ more susceptible to sin, drinking,
going around with women.” (Page 111) It is difficult for two people to
sustain a healthy and long lasting relationship because men are almost
obligated to spend time with their “peer groups” whenever they are
called upon, no matter what time of the day or night it may be. Also,
the likelihood of an unsecured employment career and schedule, as
well as, rules imposed by welfare prevent intimate relationships from
growing but puts a tremendous strain on couples instead. (Page 108)
It should be noted that the inability to secure a job is the number one
reason why intimate relationships fail to last. (Page 112) Lastly,
“people in The Flats recognize that one cannot simultaneously meet
kin expectations and the expectations of a spouse.” (Page 113 – 114)
Which means social pressures arising from a conflict of interest also
prohibit a relationship to work out and not only that, but also that it is
socially acceptable. This leads into the next point concerning why a
woman does not want a man to hold the official title of being her
“husband.” Women, unfortunately, gain more benefits from welfare
for their families (children), than relying on men to receive an
adequate salary and benefits from work. (Page 113) The fact is, in
The Flats, men are just unable to find secure jobs that will provide
them with a reasonable salary to support a family and receive
acceptable or affordable health benefits. This is clear supporting
evidence for how the welfare system keeps the poor in poverty.
Stack believes that there are two necessary circumstances that
must be realized before the poor can halt the cycle of poverty passed
down from generation to generation. “The necessary requirements for
ascent from poverty into the middle class are the ability to form a
nuclear family pattern, and the ability to obtain an equity.” (Page 127)
Stack may be right, but at the rate events are playing out, it is highly
unlikely that poverty will be eliminated from the United States within
the lifetime of the current generation. The goals she provided are a
good aim to begin working towards. However, it is an imaginably,
daunting task. Racism would have to disappear and customs would
have to be broken.
Revisiting an on-going theme in All Our Kin, the residents of The
Flats clearly distribute the daily tasks of life among each other.
“People in The Flats have acquired a remarkably accurate assessment
of the social order in American society… Kinsmen, inclined to share
their luck, provide a model of cooperative behavior for others in the
community.” (Page 128) However, the people in The Flats do not just
share luck, but they share the care of children and homes too.
Moreover, the sheer fact that they practice routine “swapping,” and
work with or help out “personal kindred” within their “domestic
network” all shows how the Black community of The Flats have
developed an intricately well thought out way of life to cope with
poverty, not alone but with each other.

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