Culture of poverty

It attracted policy attention in the 1970s, and received academic criticism (Goode & Eames 1996; Bourgois 2001), and made a comeback at the beginning of the 21st century.

Early formations suggest that poor people lack resources and acquire a poverty-perpetuating value system.

[3] De Antuñano, E. (2019) states the theory of the culture of poverty was popularized in 1958 by anthropologist Oscar Lewis, following his research in Mexico City.

Many people disagree with his theory and believe it has little to no merit, De Antuñano, E. (2019) quotes that the culture of poverty was "denounced as methodologically vague and politically misguided.

He argued that although the burdens of poverty were systemic and imposed upon these members of society, they led to the formation of an autonomous subculture as children were socialized into behaviors and attitudes that perpetuated their inability to escape the underclass.

[5] Early proponents of the theory argued that the poor are not only lacking resources but also acquire a poverty-perpetuating value system.

According to anthropologist Oscar Lewis, "The subculture [of the poor] develops mechanisms that tend to perpetuate it, especially because of what happens to the worldview, aspirations, and character of the children who grow up in it".

In the United States the culture of poverty of African Americans has the additional disadvantage of racial discrimination.

[9] Since the 1960s, critics of the culture of poverty explanations for the persistence of the underclasses have attempted to show that real world data does not fit Lewis's model (Goode & Eames 1996).

In 1974, anthropologist Carol Stack issued a critique of it, calling it "fatalistic" and noticed that believing in the idea of a culture of poverty does not describe the poor so much as it serves the interests of the rich.

They want to believe that raising the income of the poor would not change their lifestyles or values, but merely funnel greater sums of money into bottomless, self-destructing pits.

"[11] Hill, R. (2002) states that some recent scholars believe the work of Oscar Lewis on the culture of poverty was misinterpreted.