Angeli Paper

CULTURE OF POVERTY THEORY The culture of scantness is a  genial theory explaining the cycle of poverty. Based on the image that the ridiculous flummox a unique value system, the culture of poverty theory suggests the poor remain in poverty because of their adaptations to the burdens of poverty. The concept of a culture of poverty was introduced by American anthropologist, Oscar Lewis, as a result of studying the urban poor in Mexico and Puerto Rico. According to Oscar Lewis (American anthropologist): The people in the culture of poverty puddle a strong feeling of fringyity (lower limits), of helplessness, of dependency, of non belonging. They argon the like aliens in their own country, convinced that the existing institutions do not serve their interests and needs. Along with this feeling of powerlessness is a general feeling of inferiority, of personal unworthiness. *E.g.* This is true of the slum dwellers of Mexico City, who do not constitute a distinct ethnic or racial group and do not suffer from racial discrimination. In the United States the culture of poverty that exists in the Negroes has the additional damage of racial discrimination. People with a culture of poverty have very little sense of history.

They are a marginal people who know only their own troubles, their own topical anaesthetic conditions, their own neighborhood, their own way of life. Usually, they have neither the knowledge, the raft nor the ideology to see the similarities between their problems and those of others like themselves elsewhere in the world. In other words, they are not class conscious, although they are very sensitive indeed to status distinctions. When the poor buy the farm class conscious or members of trade union organizations, or when they adopt an internationalist outlook on the world they are, in my view, no longer part of the culture of poverty although they may still be desperately poor. (Lewis 1998) If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: Orderessay

If you want to get a full essay, wisit our page: write my essay .