Kinship, Ethnicity and Voluntary Associations by William E. Mitchell

Author:William E. Mitchell [Mitchell, William E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Sociology, General, Marriage & Family
ISBN: 9781351510011
Google: STMrDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-07-05T03:26:27+00:00

Not all of the meetings we attended were as boisterous and exciting as this one, but it is closer to the expressive style of meetings reported by informants. When discussing meetings with me, informants invariably stressed the gaiety and craziness of the group's behavior. Only one of the groups we attended failed to live up to this self-image. This was a small meeting of a cousins' club, and for reasons that are not completely clear to me, the members' behavior was quite restrained, perfunctory, and lacking in sparkle and fun. We left the meeting soon after refreshments were served as our presence seemed to be casting a pall on the activities, and we did not really feel included. Although the interaction style was restrained, the procedures are very typical for a small home meeting. There were 14 members present and six guests, including the parents of an affinal member, a neighbor couple from down the hall, and my wife and myself. The following are excerpts from my notes:

When my wife and I with our informant couple, Alan and Irene, arrived at the apartment, we were met at the door by the hostess, Kitty. She welcomed us, and then we walked past the living room where the women who were already sitting said, "hello" to us. We went on to the bedroom where we left our coats. Alan and I then walked towards the kitchen since all of the men were in there except Joel, a young affine at his first meeting, who was sitting in the living room rather to one side from the women. . . . Sammy was making hors d'oeuvres in the kitchen, and Bill and Jerry were talking about automobiles at the breakfast table. Sammy asked me if I would like a drink, and I said, "yes". Then I noticed I was the only person having a drink although there were about four different whiskey and scotch bottles on the drainboard. . . . Alan, on his own initiative, explained to me who all the women were in the living room since I had caught a good glimpse of them and knew where they were sitting and something of what they looked like. JM had at first come into the kitchen where she exchanged pleasantries with Bill and Jerry but then evidently noticing that this was a man's world, went into the living room where she joined Irene, We arrived at the apartment a little after nine, and we had an hour to go, in fact, a little over an hour, before the meeting actually began. ... I had gotten the impression from Irene that this was a very warm and demonstrative family that kissed each other a lot. However, I observed that as the different people arrived, the pleasantries that were exchanged were of a rather formal, stilted type, and there was none of the immediacy in the type of greetings rendered that I had expected. Although a rather talkative group, they were not noisy

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