ALL OUR KIN: Strategies for Survival in a Black Community

by Carol Stack ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 27, 1973

An examination of kin networks among poor blacks. Stack's anthropological method -- she lived in a household for an extended time -- enables her to avoid the common errors of restricting her data to the established black community and projecting her own familial patterns on to her subjects. She wishes to demonstrate that models such as the nuclear and matrifocal family -- while adequate for the middle class -- are not applicable to those she has observed. The destitution faced by such families prevents their fulfilling basic living needs; they are thus forced to establish a broad network of interdependence based on kin and friendship. The network effectively replaces the nuclear family as the primary unit of social organization. Goods and services, especially child care, are swapped. A child may be raised for varying intervals by a grandmother, a mother, a paternal aunt, or a mother's ex-boyfriend; such changes may be due to death, eviction, other hardships, personal obligation to a friend who desires the child, or whim. Often an absentee father assumes an active role. An ethic of obligation pervades the nexus, maintained by a ""precarious balance of trust and profit."" The circle constantly expands, fed by the unfulfilled needs of its members. While Stack has not completely refuted culture of poverty notions as she had intended, she has clearly made a significant contribution to the sociology of poverty.

Pub Date: Feb. 27, 1973

ISBN: 0061319821

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1973

Categories: NONFICTION