Hierarchy: Dock Pilferage – A Case Study of the Methods and Morals of Occupational Theft

This chapter focuses on workgroups that are strongly hierarchical and derives from an anthropological study of longshoremen in St John's, Newfoundland ¹ carried out by participant observation. ² Participant observation was necessarily limited. I spent eighteen months in fieldwork, living and spending leisure time with the longshoremen and their families. But since work in the port was limited – Newfoundland has a winter unemployment rate of over 40 per cent and a summer one of over 12 per cent – I was unable to work on the dock. Instead, I spent much time in the Union Hall, wandering round the wharfs and sheds and on and in vessels observing, chatting to men as they worked, and drinking with them in the evenings. My interest in pilferage was originally peripheral to other interests and arose relatively late in fieldwork.