oscar lewis' culture of poverty

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  • 8/18/2019 Oscar Lewis' Culture of Poverty

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    DIZON, KURT ZEUS L. February12, 2016MA POLITICAL SCI 1 PoS!" #0$

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    It is never the reason that culture is poor, that culture is the determinant of poverty and culture as a comparison between statuses of life. Regarding the eld of social science, for me it is a sin to say culture as a structure that determines to sucheconomic problems. Sir Dean also said that in the eld of anthropology; nevergeneralize culture which I totally agree because rst and foremost culture is diverse. If we loo into the denition of culture, according to !ebster Dictionary; culture is thebeliefs, customs, arts, etc., of a particular society, group, place and time. "is denitionculture seems inappropriate according to #ochar one of his critics, the proponent of the $ulture of %overty &scar 'ewis that culture is negative; it is the main reason of poverty is because of the poor. (ccording to the notes, it is also implying that theculture of poverty e)uals or blames blac culture thus contributing to the

    rationalization of poverty. If you tae a loo into this e*ample, a particular group of individuals with di+erent cultures a -ilipino, (merican, and apanese and eachindividual are alone in a place maybe a hill with a table and on top of the table is a bagfull of money. !hat would each individual do/ Regardless of culture, all would tae thebag full of money, hilariously maybe for the -ilipino will also tae the table 01ustidding2. 3herefore for me it is not culture but rather it is economic. 3he economicsituation is a structure that would determine any aspects whether political, social, andin his situation culture. 3hat is 4conomic Determinism. It will determine as it is themain superstructure of any characteristic in our society. In this situation, I have a rmstance that economics will always determine our structures; the problems of oursociety such as poverty then would be a+ecting our political and social environment)uoting culture. If we then loo into for e*ample in the culture of the poor, it is

    because of the economic situation in that certain place. In the study of 'ewis regarding%uerto Ricans living in the slum areas of San uan and 5ew 6or, we must loo into theeconomic situation. It is obvious that culture is not a determinant but rathereconomics. 5ew 6or is an industrial and maret capital, economic and commercecenter, and the home of the capitalist. It is where we can nd the most capitalistinstitution and its center, the !all Street 7 8nited States Stoc 9aret. Since 5ew 6oris an industrial center, we e*pect a higher per capita income yet also an e*pensivecost of living. !hile on San uan as I presume may be a city but if we compare it to5ew 6or, 5ew 6or denitely has a higher and huge maret. I really thin the rootcause of poverty is indeed economic, the capitalist society even if the poor wors hardthey could never reach a status e)uivalent to the higher class. &ur social status isdetermined by the economic situation, it is never been the reason that poor remain to

    be poor, but because they remain poor because of the structure if we see suchcapitalistic institution will be the culprit. I thin they are the most industrious, mostphysical e*erted labour force in woring sphere and they remain poor because of theeconomic situation. 4conomic situation hinders such aim, the inability to cope foreducation, employment, social welfare, etc. is heavily reliant to economic status. It isnever been culture because if we loo into classism, we have more common with theaverage woring or middle class blac or white people. Regardless of culture, we areall in the same boat and it is sining while this oppressive bourgeoisie are 1ust

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    watching in lu*ury boats. !hile we are icing each other in this little boat, we arelosing the opportunity to gain a better standard of living as a whole.