Date of Award

1974

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Sociology

Department

Sociology

First Advisor

John Poggie

Abstract

The ‘outlaw’ motorcycle gang is structurally and culturally a separate entity that exists within the larger North American society. The distribution of the gangs reaches across national boundaries, Canada having outlaw cycle gangs that compare with those in the United States. The major objective of this thesis is the description and analysis of an outlaw motorcycle gang, the Mother Fuckers.

The re-establishing of bonds of friendship with certain gang leaders assured my acceptance into the current gang. Full scale participant observation followed, allowing for the development of an understanding of the gang, its established patterns, and the phenomenon particular to it. While riding with the gang for one riding season, I became an honorary member and eventually the acting Secretary. The appointment as acting Secretary of the club enabled the tape recording of all of the gang's regularly scheduled meetings as well as interactions between members and outsiders. This opened a rich flow of material from the members which was embellished by explanations from a research assistant recruited from the gang. The approach utilized was not to test an hypothesis, but rather to gather data for a descriptive ethnography of an outlaw cycle gang.

The history of the club, as interpreted by the gang members, has established expectations and influenced the ideology of the group. The members have drawn upon the identity models presented to them through the gang's tradition. These ideologies as related to the structure and culture of the gang are enculturated by the members. The member develops a dependence on the gang for his identity as a 'Mother Fucker', which he has come to relate a s his own. The gang's internal structure and external relations, when combined with its ideologies and processes of socialization are the foundation of the gang's interaction. Social interaction is a culmination of these group dynamics.

Even though this gang is in most ways representative of the type of gangs other outlaw cycle gangs emulate, it is not completely representative of these other gangs. This difference in the nature and essence of each gang has limited the ability to generalize these findings to all other outlaw cycle gangs. By providing knowledge of the culture and social structure of one outlaw cycle gang. awareness of all such gangs has been increased, without generalizing that they are all alike. This investigation has, hopefully, provided a more complete understanding of the culture and social structure of an outlaw motorcycle gang.

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