The article reviews an earlier work on the "bodgies and widgies" (prominent in the 1950's) and research in Australian youth cultures. It takes exception to the tradition on two grounds: first, reasons, adduced in the post-structuralist critique of neo-Marxist cultural studies, to reject much of the fundamental framework of the theory; and second, good grounds for a more ethnographically sensitive reading of the activities of bodgies and widgies that bypass the more functionalist and essentialist cultural studies analysis offered in the earlier study. The article describes the attitude, behavior, activities, dress, and moral emotions of the bodgies and widgies and, to a lesser extent, some of the other Australian gangs. The article focuses on the way some young men constructed patterns of meaning and value around recurrent issues to do with power, honor, and territoriality. References, notes