Street gangs have always been committed to the defense of turf and the attainment of honor. However, street gangs have changed markedly with respect to their goals; their age and racial composition; their relationship to the wider political, economic, and cultural context; their commitment to delinquency; and their level of violence. These changes have resulted from immigration, population movement, economic transformations, racial and ethnic conflict, and the changing fabric of neighborhood and family life. Tributary surplus extraction has existed alongside the capitalist mode of production from the 1820's to the 1990's, and territorially based feuding has coexisted with the demilitarized, legalized competition of the free market. The persistence of a tributary mode has reflected the periodic restructuring of the capitalist economy and concomitant displacement of labor, as well as a long history and a cultural tradition of defensive localism. Street gangs have embraced and promoted this tradition of defensive localism through turf-based and honor-based violence. Variations in local economies and cultures account for the different and changing forms of gangs. It is analytically necessary to separate economic components and causes from honor-based components and causes; Wolf's and Weber's perspectives are crucial to this effort. Notes and 103 references (Author abstract modified)