Culture Of Poverty

In 1959, Oscar Lewis, an American anthropologist published his now well-known book titled, Five Families; Mexican Case Studies in the Culture of Poverty. This book sparked national interest, especially amongst educators, as they began consider the theory of the “culture of poverty” and its implications on their students. Many well-meaning individuals touted Lewis and his research because it provided what seemed like a reasonable explanation as to why poverty exists, despite anti-poverty programs. However, past the initial discourse that it precipitated, other researchers began to critically analyze the premises on which Lewis’ theory of the culture of poverty is founded. This research paper discusses Lewis’ original findings as well as more recent research regarding the culture of poverty; it looks at the consequences of defining poverty as a culture.

Parsing out the influences of cultural and structural factors leading to differential behaviors among the poor and nonpoor is a difficult challenge for sociologists concerned with stratification and inequality. This is largely due to the fact that they appear to be so heavily intertwined. Structural and cultural factors reinforce each other in complex ways. Pervasive cultural elements such as ideologies and values are used to frame and interpret existing socio-economic structures and their effects on individuals. Structural forces such as access to resources such as information, education and employment shape cultural views and attitudes as well.

Nelson Mandela once said, “Poverty is not natural it 's man-made.” This quote states that a person can overcome poverty if one has the desire to live a better life. In a novel called Poor People written by William T. Vollmann, the author travels around different countries and places to learn about poor people and to get a global perspective view. While interviewing different kinds of people, Vollmann would ask them one question: why are you poor? Looking at people 's answers Vollmann noticed that some of the people gave quite interesting answers. Vollmann went through a lot of situations where he just couldn 't imagine what life would be if he was ever to live like that. Another novel that has a similar poverty situation is called Let The Water Hold Me Down, written by Michael Spurgeon. Hank, the main character of the novel, experiences a tragic moment in his life. Losing his wife and daughter while drowning, this tragedy left him feeling like it’s all due to his miscarrying about them. His life becomes full of sorrow, and the only way out it was to go to Mexico to his friend’s place and restart his life over. In a new country of Mexico, this story takes place. Even though he had money, a house, and friends’ support, he still experienced lots of pressure trying to survive in Mexico. Poverty has different meanings in everyone 's lives but by reading these two novels, there are three similarities that can be made about people living in poverty.

The first group say that the poor are made to be poor by the economic

In the article “The Myth of the Culture of Poverty,” by Paul Gorski he explains and challenges all the myths surrounding poverty and the mentality of the poor. Gorski argues that “poor people do not have weaker work ethics or lower levels of motivation than wealthier people” (33). This way of thinking is called the culture of classism. A culture that leads us to have low expectations from people who have low-income or come from low-income families. Classism are what people who are financial stable use to define poor people and their characteristics. I choose this article because Gorski provides sufficient evidence on why we should not fall victim to myths that people use to depict poor people and their

The poverty theory developed by Lewis (1968) and Payne (2001) argues that the culture of poverty is both an adaptation and reaction of the economically disadvantaged to their marginal position, low socioeconomic status and impartibility in achieving success. According to the poverty theory established by Lewis (1968), there are many traits associated with the culture of poverty. Families living on poverty have a level of education and are living in inadequate housing conditions. This factor is often associated with low academic achievement and success of economically disadvantaged students. Consequently, Lewis (1998) contends that children living in poverty are often exposed early in life to drugs and alcohol, abusive relationships, and single-parent households dominated by the female parent.

The culture of poverty is the belief that a country’s dominate culture is what determines the level of industrialization. For instance, in third (and some second) world countries, families that are barely able to farm out an existence are less likely to experiment with new techniques. Since they are unable to buy better equipment they are left with sticking to the way that has worked for generations. Some cultures also teach that if a person is satisfied with this life, then they will receive a higher status in the next life. Feminization of poverty is a condition in the U.S where low income households are often headed by females. This is often contributed to unwed pregnancy, divorce, and the fact that women usually get paid less than men.

In cultural poverty, every class lived a certain lifestyle that is different from the next.  Those differences include attitudes, motives, and values.  The people of the lower class are assumed to be incapable of doing things and unmotivated.  People believe that their struggle comes from certain things that are missing in their lives.  The upper middle class and middle class are assumed to have the drive instilled in themselves to succeed.  The differences between the classes are there but it comes from the mindset.  Many think they are better because they have more than the next person.  It is stated that based on the poor raised their kids in a different way.  They did not praise things that were supposed to be done, they have a permissive

Poverty and Culture One of the common liberal claim is that all "the poor are just like everyone else except that they have less money." – Anonymous The Poverty Poverty is hunger, Poverty is lack of shelter, and Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not being able to go to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for the future, living one day at a time. Poverty is losing a child to illness brought about by contaminated water. Poverty is powerlessness, lack of representation and freedom. Poverty has many faces, changing from place to place and across time, and has been described in many ways. More often, poverty is a situation people want to escape. So poverty is a call to

Poverty for centuries has been a very severe issue that has troubled many nations while impeding economic developments and progress. Poverty stricken countries are majorly concentrated in the continents of Africa and Asia. Continents like the Americas and Europe have globally been recognized as been wealthier yet still many parts of these ostensible countries face massive cases of poverty. Most at times, countries with high populations owing to high birth rates face the most cases of poverty. The definition of poverty can be boundless in the sense that poverty entails so many subsections as it sometimes gets complicated to group everything under one umbrella. Society tends to focus more on the tangible aspects of poverty because many people associate poverty with lacking money and it makes sense because poverty in terms of lacking money is a major problem affecting almost every country in the world. Even though it is debatable that poverty can be physical, intellectual, spiritual and even emotional, it is best to talk about the lack of money and economic developments in this essay. With reference to the oxford English Dictionary, poverty is state of being extremely poor and the state of being inferior in quality or insufficient in amount. Reflecting on this definition given, I deduced that malnutrition and hunger can define poverty. In the light of this, I think poverty is lacking a comfortable place of shelter, being ill and not having access to a better

The cycle of poverty has been in existence for a long time because of the difference in class levels. The widening gap between these class levels leads to disparity in all aspects of the life of these individuals. The cycle of poverty is universal to the world because low-income communities have fewer opportunities. Despite the effort of the government to intervene with welfare programs, children born into these communities frequently have the same outcome. Healthcare is an important issue because healthier individuals will have more opportunities than individuals that do not have similar chances. The culture of these low-income areas has been attributed to the poor outcomes of these communities.

In an encounter with behavior or values regarding relationships and violence that conflict with their own, people often depend on describing these instances inadequately by ignoring crucial factors. Although, restricted explanations of violence and gendered relationships often promote fallacious conjectures. These assertions offer an explanation for certain aspects of societal patterns, though none of them should be applied when studying violence and relationships because they attempt to determine an innate deficit within an individual despite the other components of the individual’s life that contributed to their lifestyle and indiscretions.

This review is formulated with scholarly sources and references based off of poverty in America. This disclosure is approached with a value free sociological approach, and it will give insight on the social causes of poverty and the effects it has on America. Poverty is a very controversial topic. Many will assume that people living in poverty are lazy, made bad life decisions, or that they are solely the reason for their predicament however, people living in poverty would argue that their are deeper issues for it. Poverty will be deeply explained and researched from both perspectives

is a cause of deviant behavior such as crime, and also causes the poor to be marginalized from

The first main idea presented in The Working Poor is the concept of poverty being a culture of itself—like being Greek or being Hispanic. Shipler and many other experts that study poverty believe the theory that poverty follows a cycle and that that cycle after being passes from one generation to another and another becomes a culture—a way of life. Furthermore, to understand the theory of the culture of poverty, a scholar must first understand what poverty is and whom it impacts. The definition of poverty according to Zastrow and Kirst-Ashman, “the condition of not having enough money to buy things that are considered necessary and desirable (p. 25). The problem of poverty impacts roughly 11.3 percent of the United States who live below the poverty line (Shipler, p 9). Shipler claims that poverty happens in a cycle and that the cycle eventually becomes multi-generational; Shipler calls this phenomenon the culture of poverty. The culture of poverty is based on the idea that from generation to generation parents are learning attitudes of hopelessness, acceptance, and despair about their economic situation and then teaching their children these attitudes and values. Many issues contribute to the culture of poverty however, Zastrow and Kirst-Ashman claims that social isolation is one of the key points of the cycle and the culture continuing over multi-generations (p. 568). People who live in poverty have few contacts who are not living in poverty