ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with three different types of local behaviour in the small Cairene community of al-Gamaleyya. Briefly, these are: "traditional" social action, orientated to survival and solidarity; modern, mainly profit—orientated, behaviour; and action born out of a marginalized community in total social disorganization. The chapter attempts to show that survival, or the moral economy of the poor, forms the basis of the small local community in the Third World. Participation in mass culture and the negation of local norms penetrate all of social and economic life. The symbolic and material relations of exchange are transformed into purely money–based relationships. Social norms and values are not only to be seen as the rules of a community: they also create a cultural system, the material culture of daily life. In this context, material life is a social network composed of kinship and neighbourhood ties, mutual obligations, religious and social rituals, feasts, etc.
