Since both parties had mostly Scandinavian Americans in attendance, holding ethnicity constant, they are useful for seeing class as culture. Because of my odd ethnic heritage, I can tell you that all Minnesota Scandinavians are quiet compared with New York Jews, but when compared with other people of Scandinavian descent, the working class folks were quite a bit louder than the middle class ones. The trick is to be able to identify cultural differences in their own context, instead of merely assuming the superiority of the one that is most familiar.
Geertz' thick description.
