Article – The homeless in America: An examination of possessions and consumption behaviors Authors-Ronal Paul Hill and Mark Stamey Purpose – An ethnographic study to understand the survival tactics and consumer behavior of the homeless people in America. The ethnographic research was conducted to examine the consumption behavior of the homeless to understand what kinds of possessions were significant, how they were acquired, and their associated meanings for them. Guest, Namey and Mitchell (2013) consider three elements to be important in a participant observation study, namely