Flying the Sign

This work of narrative ethnography focuses on the life of a homeless man, or “street person,” who begged at an intersection in a mid-sized city in central Texas. The narrative includes dialogues with the informant, in temporal sequence, and topically arranged. The fieldwork occurred over a thirteen-month period at the close of the 20th century. Several themes pervade the ethnography, including work, apprenticeship, and vocation, alcoholism, invisibility versus visibility, performance, degree of criminal participation, and the subversive nature of the beggar’s lifestyle. The ethnography is an exercise in interpretive anthropology, allowing informants to interpret their own values and behaviors, but through dialogue and self-examination, the author also learns more about himself in the process. The ethnography presents the homeless street beggar’s lifestyle from his perspective in the hope of fostering understanding, tolerance, and perhaps a degree of appreciation for these subcultural differences.