Subculture of Poverty

Abstract

The theory of a subculture of poverty, first offered by anthropologist Oscar Lewis to understand the persistence of poverty in rural and urban settings, pervasively persists. The theory asserts that the poor adapt to conditions of poverty and marginality by creating a subculture adapted to those conditions that ensures some degree of normalcy and happiness. This culture sustains poverty by normalizing its supporting value orientations: helplessness, the search for immediate gratification, dependency, marginality, and powerlessness. Criticisms have been widespread and harsh, focusing on the notions that the poor are anything but passive and unthinking beings in the face of social and economic oppression, and that it is problematic to read from human behavior a notion of unfettered human choices. In both cases, the notion of a subculture of poverty is deemed to be simplistic and caricaturing.

Subcultural Theory

“…Similarly, a subculture of poverty has been described in anthropology (Lewis 1959;Wilson 2016). This subculture has some very specific values including helplessness, the search for immediate gratification, dependency, marginality, and powerlessness.…”