Life stories, status, and symbolic typing: Exploring beggars as an interpretive community

Author(s): Raz, A. E.

Journal/Book: J Narrative Life Hist. 1996; 6: 10 Industrial Ave, Mahwah, NJ 07430-2262. Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc Inc. 123-143.

Abstract: Based on fieldwork in a central bus station in Israel, this article focuses on the theme of life stories as an analytical venue into the social world of beggars. Beggars were found to have three statuses, or symbolic types: the handicapped, the prostitute, and the mad. The ethnography describes the interplay between the status and life stories of beggars, and analyzes how life stories are changed vis-a-vis a beggar's change of status.

Note: Article MeirDviri M, Yesrwel Coll, Rav on 2 St, IL-55900 Genei Tikva, ISRAEL

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