Chapter two of a place on the corner

             Andersons major concern is describing the status system that exist among the men on the corner. These men in the corner are in a competition for status that would give them a personal identity or something to identify with. The corner provides them with a visible means of support and something to be primarily tied to.  This corner gives then the social status of regulars. It is true Anderson is trying to elaborate how people on the corner are trying to create ties with each other and ties they can be identified with.

 What Anderson is doing can be termed as both common sense and a basis for scientific evidence as a way to understand the social of what takes place at Jelly.  It is common sense because to understand a certain group of people and the reason why they do what they do it will be advisable to play their role in order to know what they seek. On the other hand, it can be termed as a basis for scientific evidence since Anderson was carrying out an Ethnographic study that needed a scientific approach and identifying himself with the groups was a good mean of studying them.  Associating himself with the group was an important aspect in order to learn and understand their social life and the rules that came with it. an example is the fact that when outsiders came in to buy liquor, the clerks encouraged them to live immediately, this rule was unwritten and everyone understood it, Anderson would not have found out if he had failed to identify himself with this group.

From this it is understood that work and how one makes money are not factors that contribute to how groups are identified. The status of these men in the corner are determined by the identity that the other group members are willing to give to them. One is identified with a group according to who one involves himself with and the kind of behavior the person involves himself with. Ones means of making money did not matter since Anderson was a student, however, he was still accepted by the group.

Reference

Anderson, E. (2003). A place on the corner. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.