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Life-styles and lifeways in the community of South Chicago
Abstract
The origin of and impetus for the development of different and common life-styles and lifeways within various cross sections of modern society is a debated issue within anthropological scholarship. Different paradigms which guide the researcher in analyzing common objects of knowledge effect multiple foci and explanations of processes and patterns. The historical materialist paradigm argues that common life-styles and lifeways within a particular society are the effect of common fundamental conditions of existence. Utilizing the method of participant observation, the life-styles and lifeways of African-American, Latino, and European-American working people in the industrial community area of South Chicago, the second largest steel center in the nation, were studied. Emphasis was placed on attitudes and behaviors in the realms of electoral politics, during the era of Mayor Harold Washington, race and ethnicity, and sex-love practices toward discussing the degree of the expression of a common culture and consciousness of a common class position. Consciousness, as an effect of the ability to assess the conditions of existence and life processes in modern industrial society, is most manifest at the level of trade union consciousness in the context of working people in the United States. Elements of class consciousness gain expression intermittently.
Subject Area
Cultural anthropology|Social structure|Ethnic studies
Recommended Citation
Miles, Denice Darcel, "Life-styles and lifeways in the community of South Chicago" (1991). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9207439.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9207439