Networks and Marginality: Life in a Mexican Shantytown describes the life and survival of economically marginal or poor people in Cerrada del Cóndor, a shantytown of about 200 houses in the southern part of Mexico City. The field work is carried out between 1969 and 1971 using combined anthropological and quantitative methods.

This book is composed of 10 chapters and begins with an overview of the theoretical concepts essential for an adequate comprehension of the later chapters, followed by a summary of the development and evolution of Mexico City as they relate to Cerrada del Cóndor. Considerable chapters examine the migration process, the economy, the family and kinship patterns, and the reciprocity networks and associated mechanisms of survival value in the shantytown. The remaining chapters discuss some of the relevant theoretical points raised by the findings, including the reciprocity, the confianza concept, and the importance of informal economic exchange in complex urban societies.

This book will prove useful to economists, anthropologists, social scientists, and researchers.

Contenu

Foreword
Preface to the English Edition
1 Introduction
Some Preliminary Findings
A Design for Survival
City and Countryside in Latin America
An Ecological View of Migration
Urban Growth and Shantytowns
A Theory of Marginalization
2 The Setting
Mexico: Urbanization and Growth
Underemployment in Mexico
Mexico City: An Overview
Low-Income Housing in Mexico City
Cerrada del Cóndor
Some Impressions of Shantytown Life
3 Migration
An Ecological Model of the Migration Process
Migration Processes in Latin America
A Historical Sketch of Migration in Mexico
Migration and Cerrada del Cóndor
4 Shantytown Economy
Cerrada del Cóndor: Occupational Structure
Unpaid Family Labor
Economic Levels
Occupation and Economic Level
Income and Economic Level
Housing and Property Ownership in Cerrada del Cóndor
Material Belongings
Economic Level and Life-Styles
Schooling and Economic Levels
An Informal Rotating Credit Institution: Tanda
Summary and Conclusions
5 Family and Kinship
Marital Roles
The Nuclear Family
The Household: Definition
Types of Households
Some Comparisons of Households
The Residential Pattern
Kinship
Relatives in the Country
6 Networks of Reciprocal Exchange
Classification of Reciprocity Networks
Networks in Cerrada del Cóndor
Analysis of a Residential Complex: Pericos Court
Networks and Kindreds: The Villela Macronetwork
Networks and Kinship
7 Compadrazgo
Compadrazgo in Cerrada del Cóndor
Some Conclusions on Compadrazgo in Cerrada del Cóndor
8 Formal and Informal Associations
Cuatismo
Local and National Associations
9 Reciprocity and Confianza
What Is Reciprocity?
Scales of Reciprocity in Cerrada del Cóndor
Confianza: A Variable of Reciprocal Exchange
Confianza and Exchange in Cerrada del Cóndor
Patron-Client Relations: The Cacique
A Final Note on Forms of Exchange
10 Conclusions
Some Basic Concepts
Networks
Living in Cerrada del Cóndor
The Future of Reciprocity
References
Index