Crack in Spanish Harlem: Culture and Economy in the Inner City Author(S): Philippe Bourgois Source: Anthropology Today, Vol

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Crack in Spanish Harlem: Culture and Economy in the Inner City Author(S): Philippe Bourgois Source: Anthropology Today, Vol Crack in Spanish Harlem: Culture and Economy in the Inner City Author(s): Philippe Bourgois Source: Anthropology Today, Vol. 5, No. 4 (Aug., 1989), pp. 6-11 Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3032654 Accessed: 02/11/2009 18:34 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=rai. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Anthropology Today. http://www.jstor.org Crack in Spanish Harlem Culture and economy in the inner city PHILIPPE A mugging in Spanish Harlem petuating cycle of poverty' (Lewis 1966: 5). The cul- The heavy-set, white undercoverpoliceman pushed me ture of poverty concept has been severely criticized for BOURGOIS across the ice-cream counter, spreading my legs and its internalinconsistencies, its inadequateunderstanding poking me around the groin. As he came dangerously of 'culture' and ethnicity, its ethnocentric/middleclass close to the bulge in my right pocket I hissed in his ear bias, its blindness to structuralforces, and its blame- PhilippeBourgois is assistantpr-ofessor of 'It's a tape recorder'.He snapped backwards,releasing the- victim implications (cf. Leacock ed. 1971, Valen- anthropologyat San his left hand's grip on my neck and whispering a barely tine 1968, Waxman 1977, Stack 1974). Despite the FranciscoState University, audible 'Sorry'. Apparently,he thought he had clumsily negative scholarly consensus on Lewis's theory, the al- currentlyon study leave in interceptedan undercoverfrom another departmentbe- ternative discussions either tend towards economic New Yor-kCity. He cause before I could get a close look at his face he had reductionism (Ryan 1971, Steinberg 1981, Wilson contributedan article 'The numbers-joint. Miskituof Nicaragua left the bodega grocery-store cum 1978) or else ultimately minimize the reality of PolarizedEthnicity' to Meanwhile, the marijuanasellers stationed in front of profound marginalizationand destruction-some of it A.T., April 1986. the bodega that Gato and I had just entered to buy 16- internalized-that envelop a disproportionateshare of 1. A botanica is a herbal ounce cans of Private Stock (beer), observing that the the inner city poor (cf. Stack 1974, Valentine 1978; see pharmacyand santet-ia undercoverhad been rough with me when he searched critiques by Maxwell 1988, Wilson 1988). More impor- utility store. through my pants, suddenly felt safe and relieved- tantly, the media, public policy-makers and a large 2. This researchwas finally confident that I was a white drug addict rather proportionof inner city residents themselves continue fundedby the United States Bureauof the than an undercover. to subscribe to a popularized blame-the-victim/culture Census, the Wenner-Gren As we hurried to leave this embarrassingscene we of poverty concept that has not been adequately Foundationfor were blocked by Bennie, an emaciated teenager high on rebuttedby scholars. Anthropological angel dust who was barging through the door along The inner city residents described in the ethnographic Research,two with two friends to mug us. I ran to the back of the vignette above are the pariahs of urban industrial US WashingtonUniversity bodega but Gato had to stand firmly because this was society. They seek their income and subsequently their JuniorFaculty Summer the corner he worked, and those were his former identity and the meaning in their life throughwhat they Researchgrants, and partners. They dragged him onto the sidewalk sur- perceive to be high-powered careers 'on the street'. LotteryFunds and an AffirmativeAction Grant roundinghim on all sides, shouting about the money he They partake of ideologies and values and share sym- from San Francisco State still owed, and began kicking and hitting him with a bols which form the basis of an 'inner city street University. An expanded baseball bat. I found out later that Gato owed them for culture' completely excluded from the mainstream version of this article will his share of the supply of marijuanaconfiscated in a economy and society but ultimately derived from it. be appearingin a special drug bust last week . After we finished telling the Most of them have a few direct contacts with non- issue of Contempoat-y story at the crack/botanical house where I had been inner city residents, and when they do it is usually with Drug Problems devoted spending most of my evening hours this summer, people who are in a position of domination:teachers in to crack in the United Chino, who was on duty selling that night with Julio school, bosses, police officers, and later parole or States. (pronouncedJew-Lee-oh), jumped up excitedly calling probationofficers. Pseudonymshave been used in orderto disguise out 'what street was that on? Come on, let's go, we can How can one understandthe complicated ideological identities of persons still catch them-How many were they?' I quickly dynamic accompanying inner city poverty without fall- referredto. stopped this mobilization for a revenge posse, explain- ing into a hopelessly idealistic culture of poverty and ing that it was not worth my time, and that we should blame-the-victim interpretation? Structural, political just forget about it. Chino looked at me disgustedly sit- economy reinterpretationsof the inner city dynamic ting back down on the milk crate in front of the emphasize historical processes of labour migration in botanica's door and turned his face away from me, the context of institutionalized ethnic discrimination. shrugging his shoulders.Julio, whom I knew better and They dissect the structuraltransformations in the inter- had become quite close to for a number of weeks last national economy which are destroying the manufactur- year, jumped up in front of me raising his voice to ing sector in the United States and are swelling the low berate me for being 'pussy'. He also sat back down wage, low prestige service sector (cf. Davis 1987; Sas- shortly afterwardsfeigning exasperatedincredulity with sen-Koob 1986; Steinberg 1981; Tabb aiqd Sawers, the comment 'Man you still think like a blanquito'. A eds., 1984; Wilson 1978, 1987). These analyses address half dozen spectators-some of them empty-pocketed the structuralconfines of the inner city dynamic but fall ('thirsty!') crack addicts, but most of them sharply prey to a passive interpretationof human action and dressed teenage drug-free girls competing for Chino's subscribe to a weakly dialectic interpretationof the and Julio's attentions-giggled and snickeredat me. relationshipbetween ideological processes and material reality, or between cultureand class. Culture and material reality Although ultimately traceable directly to being The above extract from sanitized fieldwork notes is productsof internationallabour migrations in a transna- merely a personalized glimpse of the day-to-day strug- tional world economy, street-level inner city residents gle for survival and for meaning by the people who are more than merely passive victims of historical stand behind the extraordinarystatistics on inner city economic transformationsor of the institutionalizeddis- violent crime in the United States.2 These are the same crimination of a perverse political and economic sys- Puerto Rican residents of Spanish Harlem, New York tem. They do not passively accept their fourth-class City, that Oscar Lewis in La Vida declared to be vic- citizen fate. They are struggling determinedly-just as tims of a 'culture of poverty' enmired in a 'self-per- ruthlessly as the railroad and oil robber-baronsof the 6 ANTHROPOLOGYTODAY Vol 5 No 4, August 1989 Left: childrenplaying in a city-owned vacant lot where tenementsstood twelve years ago. Right: Passers-by posing in front of abandoned tenementswhic h have been vacantfor over a dozen years. The City of New Yorkis said to be the biggest landlord of 'crack houses' as dealers and users often establish themselvesin abandoned structureswhose ownershiphas reverted to previous century and the investment-banker'yuppies' city can be understood as the manifestations of a 'cul- the municipality. of today-to earn money, demand dignity and lead ture of resistance' to mainstream, white racist, and All photos by Philippe meaningful lives. Tragically, it is that very process of economically exclusive society. This 'culture of Bourgois. struggle against-yet within-the system which exacer- resistance', however, results in greater oppression
Recommended publications
  • Théoriser La Violence En Amérique Retour Sur Trente Ans D’Ethnographie
    1208_0029_P_139_168_Bourgois_Q7:Mise en page 1 24/10/12 9:49 Page 139 Théoriser la violence en Amérique Retour sur trente ans d’ethnographie Philippe Bourgois A NTHROPOLOGUE travaillant depuis 1979 sur la violence, la pauvreté et les inégalités sociales, en Amérique centrale d’abord, puis aux États-Unis, j’ai craint, au fil des ans, d’être véritablement obsédé par la violence. Hélas, il est plus juste de dire que la violence s’est imposée à moi parce qu’elle est, et a toujours été, au cœur de l’organisation du pouvoir dans la vie quotidienne. L’ethnographe risque bien sûr de contribuer à un voyeurisme, une porno- graphie de la brutalité. Toutefois, le danger est plus grand encore de ne pas voir la violence ; bien souvent le discours anthropologique n’en tient pas compte alors qu’elle accable les populations étudiées. La violence est inéga- lement répartie dans le monde. La façon dont elle soutient différentes struc- tures de pouvoir et d’exploitation mérite d’être analysée et dénoncée. Hélas, si la violence physique directe se voit aisément, elle ne représente que la partie émergée de l’iceberg et masque bien souvent, aux yeux des chercheurs, des formes moins flagrantes – et variant insidieusement avec le temps – de coercition, de peur et d’assujettissement. En règle générale, ces déclinaisons de la violence ne sont pas perçues ou reconnues en tant que telles par les victimes et les auteurs de violences (qui bien souvent sont une seule et même personne). Pareil aveuglement légitime aux yeux de l’ensemble de la population les politiques publiques punitives qui infligent des souffrances aux plus vulnérables.
    [Show full text]
  • Interview with Philippe Bourgois
    PERSPECTIVES: AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY Nina Brown, Thomas McIlwraith, Laura Tubelle de González The American Anthropological Association Arlington, VA Perspectives: An Open Introduction to Cultural Anthropology by Nina Brown, Thomas McIlwraith, Laura Tubelle de González is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. Under this CC BY-NC 4.0 copyright license you are free to: Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material Under the following terms: Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits. Anthropology in Our Moment in History: Interview with Philippe Bourgois Robert Borofsky, Hawaii Pacific University, Center for a Public Anthropology [email protected] How did you become an anthropologist? Discovering anthropology for me was like falling in love. I was a freshman in college and I knew nothing about the subject. I didn’t have a major. I took one of those big introductory classes in a large lecture hall because I was curious, but I didn’t really have any idea what anthropology might be. The very first lecture blew my mind. It was by an old- style style anthropologist talking about his fieldwork in the Amazon.
    [Show full text]
  • Photographing Anthropologists Photographing Cultures Nirmala Jayaraman Union College - Schenectady, NY
    Union College Union | Digital Works Honors Theses Student Work 6-2013 Photographing Anthropologists Photographing Cultures Nirmala Jayaraman Union College - Schenectady, NY Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalworks.union.edu/theses Part of the Anthropology Commons, and the Photography Commons Recommended Citation Jayaraman, Nirmala, "Photographing Anthropologists Photographing Cultures" (2013). Honors Theses. 683. https://digitalworks.union.edu/theses/683 This Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Work at Union | Digital Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of Union | Digital Works. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Photographing Anthropologists Photographing Cultures By Nirmala Jayaraman ******** Submitted in partial fulfillment Of the requirements for Honors in the Department for Anthropology UNION COLLEGE March, 2013 ABSTRACT Nirmala Jayaraman, Photographing Anthropologists Photographing Cultures. Department of Anthropology, March, 2013. My thesis explores how anthropologists use photography as a research method in capturing cultural realities different from their own. This was a library-based research study where coding and semiotic analysis were used to investigate photographs from anthropologists and my term abroad experience of photographing another culture in Vietnam, fall 2011. This analysis specifically looks at the photographs of Branislaw Malinowski’s fieldwork in the Trobriand Islands during the early 1900’s, of Margaret Mead’s fieldwork in a Balinese village during the 1930’s and 1940’s, and of Philippe Bourgois’ fieldwork in a San Francisco inner-city homeless community during the 1990’s. Over time, the camera lens shift from focusing on the anthropologist’s authoritative position to balancing objective and subjective lens’ to finally acknow- ledging the presence of multiple subjectivities both in front of and behind the camera.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction to Socio-Cultural Anthropology Prof
    Introduction to Socio-Cultural Anthropology Prof. Erik Harms (Links to an external site.) Department of Anthropology (Links to an external site.) : 10 Sachem Street (Links to an external site.), Room 120 erik.harms@ya Course Meetings: Office Hours: TBD • • M,W,F, 9:10 -11:15 • Online -- on zoom Section Scheduling Doodle: Course Description: This course is an introduction to socio-cultural anthropology, the study of human society and culture. Anthropologists write ethnographies based on long-term intensive fieldwork and participant observation and also theorize broadly about “big questions” associated with human sociality: How do cultural models and belief systems influence the ways people interact in social settings? How does power work? What binds people together and what leads to conflict? And so on. This course will introduce students to some of the major themes in modern anthropological thinking about culture, symbolism, and social structure; power and human agency (or “free will”); sex and gender; race and ethnicity; economic relations, commoditization and gift exchange; cosmology and belief systems; and other topics. In addition to introducing students to highlights in the history of anthropological thought, students will read several recent ethnographies exploring the lives of urban drug users, Wall Street i-bankers, and others. Course Goals: 1. To learn the broad scope and methods of socio-cultural anthropology through cross-cultural analysis of Western and non-Western cultures, including the student’s own. 2. To learn concepts, terminology, and methods related to the comparative study of different forms of social organization, economic systems, and processes of cultural change. 3. To sample anthropological research methods via course projects.
    [Show full text]
  • Confronting Anthropological Ethics: Ethnographic Lessons from Central America
    Confronting Anthropological Ethics: Ethnographic Lessons from Central America Philippe Bourgois Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 27, No. 1. (Feb., 1990), pp. 43-54. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-3433%28199002%2927%3A1%3C43%3ACAEELF%3E2.0.CO%3B2-5 Journal of Peace Research is currently published by Sage Publications, Ltd.. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/about/terms.html. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/journals/sageltd.html. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is an independent not-for-profit organization dedicated to and preserving a digital archive of scholarly journals. For more information regarding JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. http://www.jstor.org Wed Jun 13 16:26:11 2007 0Journal of Peace Research, vol. 27, no. 1, 1990. pp. 43-54 Confronting Anthropological Ethics: Ethnographic Lessons from Central America* PHILIPPE BOURGOIS Department of Anthropology, San Francisco State University The concern with ethics in North American cultural anthropology discourages political economy research on unequal power relations and other 'dangerous' subjects.
    [Show full text]
  • SIUE Fall 2013 ANTH 408: HISTORY of ANTHROPOLOGICAL
    SIUE Fall 2013 ANTH 408: HISTORY OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL THOUGHT Section 001 MWF 1:00-1:50 Peck 2405 Professor Nancy Lutz Office: Peck 1224 Office phone: 650-2746 Office hours: MWF 2:00-3:00 or by appointment E-mail: [email protected] Course Description: An introduction to the history of anthropological methods, theories, and ideas, focusing primarily on the history of American cultural anthropology. Includes major topics, people and ideas that have shaped the history of anthropology from the early twentieth century (1900) to the present. This course is designed as a bridge course between undergraduate and graduate level anthropology. As such, it will be run primarily as a seminar (as are most courses at the graduate level), with the bulk of material being provided through readings and discussion rather than through lectures or PowerPoints. In many cases, students will be asked to try to figure out the major points and ideas themselves, and present them to the rest of the class, with the instructor as back-up, rather than the instructor providing all the information. Course Requirements: There are three required parts to this course: Three in-class essay exams, 3 x 100 = 300 points One research term paper (approx.10 pages), 1 x 100 = 100 points OR Five article reports (2 pages each), 5 x 20 = 100 points Attendance (40 out of 44 days) 40 x 1 = 40 points + 10 pts. Participation = 50 points Grades will be based on a total of 450 points as follows: 405-450 points = A (= 90%) 360-404.5 points = B (= 80%) 315-359.5 points = C (= 70%) 270-314.5 points = D (= 60%) 0-269.5 points = F (= below 60%) Exams will consist of a choice of long (approx.
    [Show full text]
  • "Righteous Dopefiend," by Philippe Bourgois," Spectrum: Vol
    Recommended Citation Stimpson, Natalee (2015) "Book Review: "Righteous Dopefiend," by Philippe Bourgois," Spectrum: Vol. 5 : Iss. 1 , Article 7. Available at: https://scholars.unh.edu/spectrum/vol5/iss1/7 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Journals and Publications at University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Spectrum by an authorized editor of University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Spectrum Volume 5 Issue 1 Fall 2015 Article 7 11-1-2015 Book Review: "Righteous Dopefiend," by Philippe Bourgois Natalee Stimpson University of New Hampshire, Durham Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.unh.edu/spectrum Stimpson: Book Review: "Righteous Dopefiend," by Philippe Bourgois Chapter 6 Book Review: Righteous Dopefiend, by Philippe Bourgois and Jeff Schonberg Natalee Stimpson Righteous Dopefiend (2009) is the result of over a decade of research conducted by Philippe Bourgois (University of Pennsylvania) and Jeff Schonberg (University of California). The ethnography serves as a chronological narrative detailing the life of homeless drug addicts seeking shelter on the streets of San Francisco. Edgewater Boulevard is the main location of the book, encompassing an established freeway shelter, “the hole” (Bourgois and Schonberg 2009, 4) and the surrounding urban area. Over the course of 12 years (1994–2006) Bourgois and Schonberg embedded themselves intermittently in the lives of dozens of homeless heroine injectors and crack smokers. Survival strategies, childhoods, love affairs, conflicts, gender relations, ethnic polarization, alliances, and the homelessness hierarchies are recorded and detailed to readers throughout the chapters.
    [Show full text]
  • Llew Laculty - Llj
    Butgers-Gamden Fall 2011 IleRartmcnt ol Sociology, lnthronology Newsletter And Gfiminal lustice llew laculty - llJ. $tacia Gilliard-Mattncw$ Stacia Gilliard- Gilliard-Matthews was intersections of gender, Matthews has joined an Assistant Professor race, and social class). the department as an of Criminology at West She teaches Police and Assistant Professor of Virginia University in Policing, Research Criminal Justice. Morgantown. Her areas Methods (graduate Professor Gilliard- of research focus on seminar), and Poor, Matthews earned her the relationships that Minorities, and Justice. B.A. from the University politics and policies She also directs the of Maryland at College have on social issues internship program. We Park, M.A. from The (i.e., White supremacist are delighted to Ohio State University, group mobilization, welcome Professor and Ph.D. from Arizona police behavior and Gilliard-Matthews to the State University. Before discretion, and the department. coming to Rutgers- treatment of victims as Camden, Professor it relates to the laculU llews Professors Ted Goertzel The second edition of Sponsored by the Rutgers and Sheila Cosminsky Crack Mothers: Center for Children and have announced plans to Pregnancy, Drugs, and Childhood Studies in retire after long careers at the Media, a book by Dr. partnership with our Rutgers Camden. Next Drew Humphries, has just department and the semester may be your last been released. Editors at Rutgers-Camden School chance to take a course Ohio State University of Law, the event brought with one of these profess- Press recognized the together about 100 sors, although Emeritus continuing demand for the policymakers, government faculty do occasionally book and made the officials, human service teach courses.
    [Show full text]
  • Anthropology 517 the Anthropology of Violence Spring 2014
    ANTHROPOLOGY 517 THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF VIOLENCE SPRING 2014 Dr. Rocío Magaña Graduate Seminar: Assistant Professor Thursdays 9:15-12:15PM, RAB 305 Office Ruth Adams Building Room 312 Office: 848-932-4106 Anthropology Department Cell 773-398-0196 Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey [email protected] Office Hours: Thurs 12:30-2:30 & by appointment, RAB 312 Course Description Violence has been a central object of study for anthropologists, and social concern throughout the ages. Over the course of the semester, we will examine overt and extraordinary forms of violence, and consider as well the significance of its discreet and everyday expressions. To this end, we will explore scholarship on phenomena ranging from war, ethnic conflict and genocide, to neglect, exclusion and exposure to harm to inquire: What is violence? How does violence emerge and reproduce? How do different labels or categories – neglect, harm, discipline, civilian justice – affect our understanding of violent phenomena and the social relations they index? What can ethnography offer to our understanding of it? How can we as anthropologists develop effective tools to study a phenomenon that manifests from the intimacy of the family to the indifference of global actors and deterritorialized institutions? With these questions in mind, the course is organized around three major goals. Part I, “Theories on the Ontology of Violence,” offers an overview of key ideas and theories on violence developed by major figures in the social sciences cannon. In Part II, “Ethnographies of Violence,” students will be able to examine how contemporary ethnographers have approached the issue in their writing and analysis.
    [Show full text]
  • Philippe Bourgois in Amsterdam
    I BOWEN PAULLE Philippe Bourgois in Amsterdam An interview Philippe Bourgois is one of the most creative and influential urban ethno­ graphers working today. He has come to see Pierre Bourdieu as the greatest sociologist/anthropologist of his generation and one of the most important thinkers since Durkheim and Weber. As the following interview was carried out less than six months after the untimely death of Bourdieu it felt natural to begin with a few words about Bourdieu and to return to his work and ideas on several occasions. The interview’s main focus, however, is Bourgois’ general approach to carrying out ethnographic research into the often self­ destructive coping (or survival) strategies which are at once cause and result of the intense circumstances one finds in the urban core of apartheid’ America. Bourgois’ father is a French, non-Jewish, survivor of a forced labour plant in Auschwitz. Bourgois grew up in his mother’s native upper class and upper East Side Manhattan milieu. Before moving onto Harvard’s prestig­ ious Social Studies program to receive his B.A. (in 1978) and Stanford for two M.A.’s (in Anthropology and Development Economics) and a PhD. (in Anthropology) Bourgois was educated at New York most elite private school (The Dalton School). Perhaps this explains, in part, Bourgois’ attraction to the extremes of social space and what he now calls, after Bourdieu, ‘social suffering’. Whether this interpretation is correct or not it is clear that his own habitus formation trajectory could not be more different from those of the people with whom he chooses to immerse himself as a scholar, field- worker and friend: those he refers to as ‘lumpen sub-proletarians’ in revolu­ tionary Central America, ‘crack dealers’ in Spanish Harlem (with whom he lived less than a kilometer from were he grew up) and ‘black and white’ ‘dope fiends’ in San Francisco.
    [Show full text]
  • Resounding Power: Politicizing the Anthropology of Music
    CHAPTER 21 RESOUNDING POWER PoLiticiZinG tHe AntHroPoLoGy oF mUSic Matt Sakakeeny My research in ethnomusicology, the anthropological study of music, has fo- cused on musicians in brass band ensembles who provide music for funerals and parades, festivals, and concerts in New Orleans. When I began conduct- ing fieldwork in 2006, participation and observation meant marching behind the drums and tuba for miles through the city streets, or standing amidst the dancing crowds at a nightclub while the trumpets, trombones, and saxophone played the melodies of an old jazz standard or a recent pop song. On festival stages, brass bands appeared alongside jazz, blues, soul, and funk bands, hip- hop artists, and Mardi Gras Indian “tribes.” Because these black performance traditions are integral to New Orleans’ identity as a musical city, black New Orleanians serve as ambassadors of local culture and yet they remain vulnerable to the patterns of marginalization that define life for people of color in count- less other urban centers. My conversations with musicians and other New Orleanians about this push- and- pull of precariousness and possibility eventually led me to interview Cherice Harrison Nelson. Cherice was nearing retirement as a public school You are reading copyrighted material published by University of Chicago Press. Unauthorized posting, copying, or distributing of this work except as permitted under U.S. copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. 396 MATT SAKAKEENY teacher and dedicating her time to directing a cultural center in her Upper Ninth Ward neighborhood. I explained to Cherice my method of collecting stories from practitioners so that their own words would not just stand alongside my own but drive the direction of my research and the theories developed in the writing.
    [Show full text]
  • Amsterdams Sociologisch Tijdschrift Jaargang 30, Nummer 4, December 2003
    Amsterdams Sociologisch Tijdschrift jaargang 30, nummer 4, december 2003 Inhoud Fitness 443 Nationale ambities en persoonlijke behoeften ruud stokvis Bitter als de brakke morgen 463 Over het ressentiment van ondergeschikte posities thierry kochuyt & anton derks Oppakken of wegleggen? 498 Beslissen over het in leven houden van extreem te vroeg geboren kinderen eric vermeulen Kou en warmte in de stad 528 Over ‘privacy in public’ en geveinsde onverschilligheid sjaak van der geest Philippe Bourgois in Amsterdam 544-574 An interview bowen paulle Summaries 575 bowen paulle Philippe Bourgois in Amsterdam An interview Philippe Bourgois is one of the most creative and influential urban ethnographers working today. He has come to see Pierre Bourdieu as the greatest sociologist/anthropologist of his generation and one of the most important thinkers since Durkheim and Weber. As the following interview was carried out less than six months after the untimely death of Bourdieu it felt natural to begin with a few words about Bourdieu and to return to his work and ideas on several occasions. The interview’s main focus, however, is Bourgois’ general approach to carrying out ethnographic research into the often self-destructive coping (or survival) strategies which are at once cause and result of the intense circumstances one finds in the urban core of ‘apartheid’ America. Bourgois’ father is a French, non-Jewish, survivor of a forced labour plant in Auschwitz. Bourgois grew up in his mother’s native upper class and upper East Side Manhattan milieu. Before moving onto Harvard’s prestigious Social Studies program to receive his B.A. (in 1978) and Stanford for two M.A.’s (in Anthropology and Development Economics) and a PhD.
    [Show full text]