Swapping and Child-Keeping

Mohandas Gandhi once said, “To wear torn clothes is a sign of laziness and, therefore, of shame, but to wear patched clothes proclaims poverty or renunciation, and industry” (Gandhi 10). People adapt to a poor life in the city by taking on a number of survival methods. These strategies are cultivated through a method of trust and responsibility–not indolence. From an ethnocentric stance, one might think that the poor are out of jobs because they are lazy, and therefore assume that they continue to be poor out of the same laziness. That which is not understood leads to the development of hasty conclusions, generating most often stereotypes of a certain people.

To understand completely a situation such as poverty, one must take a purely relativistic approach, just as Carol Stack had done in her 1974 study of family life among black urban residents. She realized that the system of exchange used by the poor is different from that of the wealthy. The wealthy rely heavily on the market exchange system, with the use of money. The poor in Stack’s All Our Kin, on the other hand, operate on a combination of generalized and balanced reciprocity. No time frame of repayment is set. Repayment does not immediately follow the initial gesture: “[T]ime has to pass before a counter-gift or a series of gifts can be repaid” (Stack 41). However, the value of repayment is calculated: “The value of an object given away is based upon its retaining power over the receiver; that is, how much and over how long a time period the giver can expect returns of a gift” (Stack 42). Thus, we see that value depends on the timeframe. Redistribution can also be applied as a method used; as something is received in a trade, it is passed on after its use. This type of exchange and re-exchange can be defined in the “exchange theory.” The exchange theory is one which holds that people are motivated by self-interests in their inter-actions with other people.

“Poverty creates a necessity for this exchange of goods and services” (Stack 29). The term used for this type of exchange of goods and services in The Flats is swapping. This form of reciprocity or trade in other words, is an exchange of material goods ranging from food stamps to children. Swapping allows for the distribution and redistribution of material goods throughout a poor community, giving everyone in the network of kinsmen and friends an equal opportunity to benefit. The collective power of this system of exchange lets not one go hungry, thus creating a very selfless atmosphere. However, it is not entirely altruistic; one is obliged and expected to return the favor, for “[T]he obligation to repay carries kin and community sanctions” (Stack 34). This sort of unspoken law is a form of punishment for the moochers of the community. The community and kin-network are all one has to survive and to be forbidden from any of their fruits would hold devastating effects on the individual (Stack 34). For example, if one does not pull his or her weight and give back to the community, then his or her reputation is damaged through the art of gossip (Stack 35). Once one’s reputation is damaged, it would be extremely difficult to rebuild; there are several more that are just as needy, and pulling a moocher along would be pulling dead weight. This allows for great incentive to reimburse as often and as much as possible. The obligation to repay carries with it a grave responsibility to fellow kinsmen and friends. The responsibility is so great that when one trades consistently with another, he or she becomes a distinguished member of the community (Stack 38). Like clockwork, domestic networks swap with each other, as with any other business. However, swapping is more of a social-binding activity out of necessity, not greed.