All Our Kin (Carol Stack)
1. What is the family "structure" for African American women in The Flats?
- Who do these women consider family?
- Why do they rely on one another rather than the father of their children?
- Why do women discourage others within their network from marrying?
2. What is a "swapping network?"
- Why do women swap?
- What gets swapped?
- How are people recruited to swapping networks?
- Would you say that swapping is a result or cause of
poverty?
3. To what extent are fathers absentee?
- In what ways do they help?
- What about their kin?
4. The culture of poverty arguments holds that "behavior
causes poverty." Opponents say that "poverty causes
behavior." Which argument do the findings of this book
support? Give examples.
5. How does this family structure then "function" to provide for these young
women? In what ways do you think others might pick up on this and say that
these women are causing their own problems or are bad mothers?
6. Do you think that the circumstances of this book are a result of race or of
class?
7. With regard to Boyz in the Hood, what is the corollary for young men's family
networks? Who is their family and why? What function does it serve?
