Reciprocity On Skid Row Summary

Christopher Hauch’s original study, “Reciprocity on Skid Row” implements an understanding of the economic and behavioural systems of the community, skid row, in Winnipeg. During Hauch’s several years of ethnographic research of skid row, his studies conclude that there are similarities between the lives of people in skid row and those apart of the well-known community, the Ju/’hoansi. Although each society is a part of a different environment, skid row being urban and Ju/’hoansi being rural, it is remarkable how they are related through common foraging methods. In comparison, the purpose of exchange practices of the Ju/’hoansi’s hxaro system and the process of exchange on skid row are the similar, yet each society performs the exchange with different types of people. …show more content…
The purpose of the Hxaro exchange is similar to the logic of exchange among the people on skid row. In the Ju’/hoansi community, exchanges are made with no calculation of value, but with the intention to establish relationships, in hopes they will not be penalized in case they need help in the future. On skid row, residents will give or share their binges, so they will not be a victim of violence or social disengagement. Both purposes for exchanges are to benefit oneself. While the two societies share similar logic in exchange, they do not exchange with the same genre of people, nor with the same objects. Due to the fact the Ju/’hoansi’s live in rural areas the community is often acquainted and is filled with familiar faces. Hence when a person gives it is usually to someone they know, so the chances of receiving something in return is higher than a resident in skid row. Being that skid row is in an urban and industrial area, surrounded by a large population when a person gives an object to another, chances are they will never see them again, meaning they will not gain anything in