Culture of Poverty

Historical Origins

The idea that culture can explain the social and economic positions of disadvantaged groups did not originate with Lewis. However, the term culture of poverty was first coined by Lewis, and it was through his extensive and detailed ethnography of poor families in Mexico and Puerto Rico that the idea gained widespread currency. Lewis contended that the poor who live in a culture of poverty display remarkable similarity in the structure of their families, in their interpersonal relations, and in their value systems. Lewis referred to these similarities as “universal” characteristics, which he delineated in a list consisting of as many as eighty economic and psychosocial traits. Included in this list were feelings of inferiority and dependency, lack of social organization, early initiation into sex, female-headed households, and child abandonment, among many others.

Lewis observed that these characteristics are both an adaptation and a reaction of the poor to their marginalized status. He argued, however, that once these psychological and behavioral patterns become established, they assume a “life of their own” and act as independent forces that impede social mobility and perpetuate the cycle of poverty from one generation to the next. Lewis suggested that not all poor live in a culture of poverty. Instead, he argued that a culture of poverty is most likely to be present among the poor in a class-stratified, highly individualized, and capitalistic society and least likely to be found in socialist countries. Lewis believed that the poor in socialist countries are active members of trade unions, which equip them with class consciousness and a sense of solidarity, and have hope that insulates them from a culture of poverty.

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