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Crucible of Identity: The Negro Lower-Class Family

Rainwater, Lee

Daedalus (Cambridge, Mass.), 1966-01, Vol.95 (1), p.172-216 [Peer Reviewed Journal]

Boston: American Academy of Arts and Sciences

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  • Title:
    Crucible of Identity: The Negro Lower-Class Family
  • Author: Rainwater, Lee
  • Subjects: African American culture ; African Americans ; Children ; Family/Families ; Husbands ; Identity/Identities ; Men ; Mothers ; Negro/Negroes ; Parents ; Rain ; Slums ; Social class/Social classes ; Women
  • Is Part Of: Daedalus (Cambridge, Mass.), 1966-01, Vol.95 (1), p.172-216
  • Notes: ObjectType-Article-1
    SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
    ObjectType-Feature-2
    content type line 23
  • Description: An exploration in depth of the fam's role in the 'tangle of pathology' which characterizes the ghetto. It is felt that whites, by their greater power, create situations in which Negroes do the dirty work of caste victimization for them; further, the caste-facilitated infliction of suffering by Negroes on other Negroes & on themselves appears most poignantly within the fam. The victimization process prepares & toughens its members to function in the ghetto world while interfering with their ability to operate in any other world. The main characteristics of the Negro slum fam are: its matrifocal character; its high % of relatives outside the mother-father-children triangle; & its high incidence of children. The several stages & forms of Negro Lc fam life are outlined, & it is found that for girls, pregnancy is the real measure of maturity. There is a high degree of premarital sexual activity, & it is in the easy att's toward premarital pregnancy that the matrifocal character of the fam appears most clearly. Marriage is a fragile arrangement, held together primarily by affectional ties rather than instrumental concerns. Conjugal role segregation is characteristic of husband-wife relations, & the man's status in the home depends mainly on whether he brings in money. The precipitating causes of marital disruption fall into econ or sexual categories. Most common in ghetto life is the 3-generation maternal household, which is open to the world, uncontrolled, run with a minimum of org. F role models emphasize an exaggerated self-sufficiency, while M's learn that they are exposed to the least risk of failure when unmarried. Identity processes in the fam reveal that growing up involves an appreciation of the impossibility of finding a selfsufficient & gratifying way of living. In Lc culture human nature is viewed as essentially bad, destructive & immoral, & this leads the individual to feel that he must embrace an unattractive self in order to function at all. It is concluded that only a change in the original `inputs' of the caste system can change fam forms. J. Hennessee.
  • Publisher: Boston: American Academy of Arts and Sciences
  • Language: English
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