Name: ___________________________________________________
IB Social & Cultural Anthropology HL
Most questions will require an answer of at least 3 – 4 sentences. Some more…some less.
Use your best judgment.
Study Questions for Philippe Bourgois' In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio
Summary of Study - This is an ethnographic study on marginalized groups with emphasis on Puerto
Ricans who experience socio-economic and political exclusion in El Barrio, New York City. The
researcher sought to highlight the macro-structural and ideological forces that perpetuate inner city
lived culture. From all indicators, he used informal consent to gather his data and participatory
observation along with content analysis. In concluding, the researcher made recommendations to
academia, politicians, and policy makers as to how empowerment can be facilitated through nonstereotypical research.
Introduction & Chapter 1 Due Thursday 2/6
General and Introduction
1. What is Bourgois' main argument in this book? How does he go about making it, step by
step? Is it convincing? Why?/Why not?
2. What is "cultural capital?" How does this concept explain the experiences of people from El
Barrio-in school? at work? in business? in the legal system?
3. Define structure (in relation to anthropology).
4. Define agency (in relation to anthropology).
5. How do you think Bourgois' ethnography balances "structure" and "agency?"
6. What are the functions of "street culture?"
7. How have other social scientists interpreted inner city culture? How does Bourgois disagree
with them?
Chapter 1 - Violating Apartheid in the United States
1. What does Bourgois mean by "internalizing institutionalized violence?" How do Primo and
Caesar "internalize" racism and oppression?
2. How do the attitudes of Primo and Caesar about drugs compare to those of mainstream
America and to middle class drug users?
Chapter 2 & Chapter 3 Due Thursday 2/27
Chapter 2 - A Street History of El Barrio
1. What have been the different waves of immigrants who have lived in East Harlem? How
would you describe a continuity in their experiences? How have they been described by
outsiders? How is the poverty of East Harlem spatially segregated from mainstream America?
2. What is a jibaro?
3. What were the reasons for the switch to cocaine in American inner cities and the subsequent
development of crack?
4. What other underground products preceded and followed the 1980s crack boom? Why are
"drugs" a particularly important commodity in marginalized areas?
5. How does "urban renewal" reinforce a violent street culture?
Chapter 3 - Crackhouse Management: Addiction, Discipline, and Dignity
1. What are some of the tradeoffs Primo and his friends must consider about trying to enter the
legal economy vs. working in the underground economy? What sorts of material and personal
benefits do each provide? What about self-respect?
2. What was the relationship between Primo's use of crack and his employment in the
crackhouse?
3. How much money does Primo make in the crackhouse? Why can't he and his friends save
money?
4. What sorts of precautions do the crack dealers take? What kind of labor relations does their
boss engage in? Why aren't they busted? How are their crackhouses different from the crack
and ganja scenes in Jamaica?
Chapter 4 & Chapter 5 Due Thursday 3/6
Chapter 4 - "Goin Legit": Disrespect and Resistance at Work
1. How does street culture's definition of "dignity" impact the experience of working in
downtown offices?
2.What are some of the "structural" changes that have effected the Puerto Rican immigrants in
New York? Relate these structural changes to the cultural conflicts that occur at the work
place?
3. How did Primo and Caesar get socialized into different attitudes towards work?
4. What are jobs that can give their employees self-respect, in the terms of East Harlem? Why?
What are the obstacles to getting these jobs?
5. How do the ways in which men and women interact in FIRE sector jobs seem inappropriate
to Primo and Caesar? How have they been hurt by intercultural miscommunication?
6. What are the "weapons of the weak?"
7. How do Primo and Caesar respond differently to the assault on their dignity that occurs in
office jobs? How is their retreat into the underground economy a viable adaptation to this
situation?
Chapter 5 - School Days: Learning to be a Better Criminal
1. What are the various ways and institutions in which children in El Barrio are socialized from
the beginning into an underground street culture?
2. How do teachers unconsciously hierarchize and label their students? How do students
respond to this? What were the different paths charted out from an early age for Primo, Caesar,
and Eddie?
3. How do students adapt to the experience of violence in everyday life in the school system
and in reform schools?
4. What was Primo taught in school? What about Caesar? Jaycee?
5. Why do children in El Barrio commit crimes? How do Caesar and Primo represent different
attitudes toward crime?
6. What is the meaning of gang rape in the context of El Barrio? How do the perpetrators
attempt to justify their actions? How can this be seen as part of male socialization?
7. How does Bourgois interpret the "Graffiti Hall of Fame?"
Chapter 6 & Chapter 7 Due Friday 3/21
Chapter 6-Redrawing the Gender Line on the Street
1. How have gender roles and masculine and feminine identities changed for the residents of El
Barrio since their parents came over from Puerto Rico? What are the structural explanations
underlying those changes? How can we see these changes in the different attitudes of Ray's and
Candy's generation and Primo's generation? What are the alternative "culturally-scripted"
gender roles available to young men and women?
2. Describe the traditional small town Puerto Rican family? Was it "patriarchal?" Why did the
man command respeto?
3. How have the structural changes in male role-the decline of the conditions for patriarchyresulted in more male-on-female violence? Why does Bourgois think that the psychological
explanations for this violence fail?
4. After Candy shot her husband, what gender role did Candy adopt?
5. What kind of liberation have Puerto Rican women gained in El Barrio? What are the limits
of those gains?
6. How does the Welfare system effect El Barrio's women and their families?
Chapter 7 - Families and Children in Pain
1. What/ is the relationship between changing gender roles as the role of women as mothers?
What is happening to the family unit?
2. How do El Barrio attitudes towards babies and children differ from those of white middle
and upper class society?
3. What cultural patterns were revealed during the incident of Jackie's abduction?
4. Compare Bourgois' discussion of crack-addicted mothers to Sheper-Hughes' article "Death
Without Weeping."
5. How does street culture define different obligations for mothers and fathers?
6. What roles within underground street culture are available to women?
7. How has "anti-drug hysteria" been used to demonize particular groups? What drives
mainstream representations of crack?
BONUS: What are the different reasons why men and women in El Barrio want to have
children?
Chapter 8 & Chapter 9 Due Thursday 4/10
Chapter 8-Vulnerable Fathers
1. Does Bourgois believe that two parent nuclear families are the answer to El Barrio's
problems? How does the welfare system encourage women to remain in abusive relationships?
2. How have cultural definitions of masculinity in El Barrio changed? How does Eddie express
the relationship between sexuality and oppression? Why did peasant families want large
numbers of children? How was masculinity defined in Puerto Rican peasant society?
Chapter 9-Conclusion
1. What policy changes does Bourgois propose to deal with the problems of postindustrial
America's inner cities? What are his reasons?
2. What is the root causes of these problems? Is it drugs?
3. What is Bourgois' approach to the "drug problem?"