A place on the corner
Anderson describes people in groups. These groups are the regulars, the wine heads and the hoodlums. He has various reasons why he describes people in terms of groups. He groups people as regulars since they place judgment on others according to their instincts and according to what they think is right and wrong, and according to what they think is decent. This term “regulars” they reserve for those who they think are like them in every aspect. In order to fit in this group, one must be able to meet their standards of conducts which is very important to them. To meet these standards of conduct one must work (Anderson, p 55). Those who are referred as wine heads are put in this group because gaining this status is easy, this status is accorded to those who have been denied association with the regulars and the hoodlums from time to time and are continuously reminded of their biographies (Anderson, p 93). The last group Anderson used it to define people who were of ripe age, the age of men in this group was 33-70, some of the people are put in this group because they have lived in the area for a very long time, also because they are always waiting for something exiting to take place. Lastly, these people are put in the hoodlum group because they are always waiting for a wine head to come their way wanting to be one of them (Anderson, p 129).
Anderson is involved in an ethnography. Ethnography is described as the study of people’s habits, culture and their difference from other groups. By grouping these people Anderson is conducting an ethnography since he groups these people in order to figure out their habits and what sets apart each group from the other. He is also involved in participant observation since he is grouping them based on his observation of these men. This act of grouping these men is also a systematic study of culture, the fact that he was carrying out an ethnography proves that he was systematically assessing culture (Anderson, pp 55,93,129).
Work cited
Anderson, E. A place on the corner. 2003. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
