Book

In search of respect: selling crack in El Barrio

Cambridge University PressCambridgePublished In 1996 • Pages: xii, 392

By: Bourgois, Philippe I..

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This work is a study of the experience of poverty, ethnic segregation, and economic marginalization in East Harlem, New York City. Bourgois describes the vast underground economy, ranging from curbside car repairing and baby sitting to unlicensed off-track betting and drug dealing, which provide a source of income for many of East Harlem's inner city inhabitants. Drug dealing, which is a symbol and symptom of the deeper dynamics of social marginalization and alienation, is given particular emphasis in this book. In an attempt to study this aspect of the inner city culture more throughly, the author, accompanied by his wife and child, moved to East Harlem, where he spent hundreds of nights on the streets and in crackhouses in the area observing dealers and addicts in operation. Several of these dealers Bourgois befriended and these served as his primary informants in his study of the drug culture. The data obtained from these informants, used in conjunction with his own field observations, serve as the basis of this study.
SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
Life history materials
Recreational and non-therapeutic drugs
Labor supply and employment
Illegal entertainment
Ingroup antagonisms
Household
Family relationships
Crime
Alcoholism and drug addiction
Delinquency
Public assistance
cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
Puerto Ricans (Mainland)
HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
2002
RegionThe area the document pertains to
North America
Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
Regional, Ethnic and Diaspora Cultures
Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
Book
Evaluation
Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
Ethnologist
Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
5: Excellent Primary Data
AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
John Beierle ; 2000
Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
March 1985-September 1990
Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
late 1980s - 1994
Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
East Harlem, New York, N.Y., United States
NotesAdditional notes
Philippe Bourgois
Includes bibliographical references (p. 365-378) and index
LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
95005929
LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
Puerto Ricans--United States