Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research
Review: [untitled]
Source: Current Anthropology, Vol. 8, No. 5, Part 1 (Dec., 1967), pp. 480-500
Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of Wenner-Gren Foundation for
Anthropological Research
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2740286
Accessed: 08/08/2010 03:48
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless
you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you
may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.
Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucpress.
Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed
page of such transmission.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
The University of Chicago Press and Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research are collaborating
with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Current Anthropology.
http://www.jstor.org
A CA* BOOK REVIEW
The Children
of&anchez,
andLa Vida
PedroMartinez,
byOscarLewis
of authorand publisher,55 Associateswere invitedto
With the agreement
participatein the Review*. The first20 who agreedto the termswere sent
the author'sprecisand copies of the followingthreebooks by Oscar Lewis:
The childrenof Sa'nchez:Autobiography
of a Mexicanfamily(New York:
RandomHouse, 1961,xxxi,499 pp.), Pedro Martinez:A Mexicanpeasantand
his family(New York: RandomHouse, 1964, lvii, 507 pp.), and La vida:
A PuertoRican familyin thecultureof poverty(New York: RandomHouse,
1966,xxxv,675 pp.). Fourteenreviewersrespondedin timefortheirreviews
to be sentto Dr. Lewis for his reply:Nathan Ackerman,Mary JeanAerni,
K. Aoyagi,LorraineBaric, J. H. M. Beattie,Cyril S. Belshaw,Theodore
Caplow,RobertColes,Johannes
Eichhorn,EugenioFernandezMendez,Joseph
P. Fitzpatrick,
Manual Maldonado-Denis,MarvinK. Opler, Rodolfo Stavenhagen,PeterWillmott,
and Eric R. Wolf.Printedbeloware theauthor'sprecis,
thereviews,and the author'sreply.
action between culture and the individual emerges.Indeed, as theoretical
concepts on the study of culturehave
increased and our level of generalization and abstractionhas been raised,
we have come to deal more and more
with averages and stereotypesrather
than with real people in all their individuality. It is a rare monograph
which gives the reader the satisfying
feeling of knowing the people in the
way he knows them after reading a
good novel. As Malinowski (1922:17)
put it:
... we are given an excellent skeleton,so
but it
the time they have become great to speak,of the tribalconstitution,
Author'sPrecis
much
writers,
theygenerally
look back over lacks flesh and blood. We learn
of theirsociety,but
about the framework
theirearly lives throughmiddle-class within
it we cannotconceiveor imagine
In the 19thcentury,
when the social lenses and write within traditional the realitiesof humanlife.
forms,
so thattheretrospective
scienceswerestillin theirinfancy,
the literary
job of recordingthe effectsof the work lacks the immediacyof the
Individual life historiesare of some
processof industrialization
and ur- original experience.
help here, but they are mostly based
This situation presents a unique upon the informant'sown statements
banization on personal and family
to the social sciencesand ratherthan on trained direct observalifewas leftto novelists,
playwrights, opportunity
to step tion. Parsons, Lowie, -Kroeber, and
and social reformers.
To- particularlyto anthropology
journalists,
day,a similarprocessofculturechange into the gap and developa literature others have tried to make anthropois goingon amongthe peoplesof the of its own. Indeed,it is the anthro- logical data more vivid through the
the spokesmen use of pseudo-fictionor what Kroeber
less-developed
countries,
but we find pologists,traditionally
no comparableoutpouringof a uni- for primitivepeople in the remote (1952:233) has called "fictionalized
versalliterature
whichwould help us cornersof the world, who are in- ethnography,"whereby an imaginary
turning
theirenergies
to the personage goes throughall the stages
to improveour understanding
of the creasingly
processand thepeople.Whilewe have greatpeasantand urbanmassesof the of a "manufacturedlife cycle." "The
countries.
a great deal of information
on the less-developed
purpose is to portraytheculturerather
geography,history,economics,poliHow can the anthropologist
gather than a psychologicallyconvincingand
tics,and even the customsof many and presentscientificdata on these individual character," so that we are
of these countries,we know little people and their cultures without left with what Kroeber has aptly
about the psychologyof the people, losing a sense of the wholenessand called "a generalized dummy."
particularly
of the lowerclasses,their vividnessof life? Even in our best
It seems to me that the intensive
problems,how they thinkand feel, anthropologicalmonographspeople and minute study of whole families,
what theyworryabout, argue over, have a way of gettinglost in culture nuclear and extended, can help us
anticipate,or enjoy.
patterns,statuses,roles, and other combine the scientificand humanistic
The people who live at the level abstractconcepts.Too many mono- strengthsof anthropology. The idea
of povertydescribedin the volumes graphs on tribal and peasant com- of a subcultureof poverty which cuts
herereviewed,althoughby no means munitiesgive an undulymechanical across regional,rural-urban,and even
thelowestlevel,have notbeenstudied and staticpictureof the relationship national boundaries grew out of my
or psy- betweentheindividualandhisculture. family studies. Indeed, family studies
intensively
by psychologists
chiatrists.Nor have the novelists Individuals tend to become insub- are probably the best method to
givenus an adequateportrayalof the stantialand passiveautomatonswho establish the presence or absence of
innerlives of the poor in the con- carryout expectedbehaviorpatterns. the more than 70 traits which I have
in theo- suggested in defining the culture of
temporaryworld. The slums have For all the pronouncements
too littleof theinter- poverty.
producedfew great writers,and by reticaltreatises,
480
CURRENT
ANTHROPOLOGY
Lewis: CHILDREN OF SANCHEZ, PEDRO MARTINEZ, LAVIDA
In my researchin Mexico since
to developa
1943, I have attempted
number of approaches to family of family organization; the reactions was part of my studyof an anthrostudies.In Five Families (1959), I of individuals to the expected be- pologicallywell-knownMexican viltriedto givethereadersomeglimpses havior patterns; the effectsof con- lage which I now call Azteca. The
of dailylifein fiveMexicanfamilies, formityor deviationupon the develop- Childrenof Sa'nchezwas part of my
on fiveordinary
days.In TheChildren ment of the personality. Of course, studyof 71 samplefamiliesin a large
of Sa'nchezI offeredthe reader a those problems can also be studied in vecindad in Mexico City. La Vida
deeperlook into the lives of one of other contexts. However, I believe grew out of my studyof 100 slum
thesefamilies,by havingeach mem- that the more data we gather on a familiesin San Juan and theirrelaber of the familytell his own life small group of people who live and tivesin New York. However,intenstoryin his own words.My purpose work togetherin the family,the more sive familystudiesrequireexhaustive
was to give thereaderan insideview meaningfultheir behavior. This is a researchwhichby its natureprecludes
of familylife and of what it meant cumulative process, especially im- large samples.It involvesthe estabto growup in a one-roomhomein a portant for understandingthe covert lishment
of deeppersonaltieswithout
slumtenement
in theheartof a great aspects of culture.
which it would be impossibleto
LatinAmericancitywhichwas underFamily studies also serve to de- obtainintimatedata.
goinga processof rapid social and lineate the social networks within
In Pedro Martinez,a tape-recorded
economicchange.This approachgives which families transact their lives storyof a Mexicanpeasantfamilyas
us a cumulative,multifaceted,
pano- and to this extent the family study told by threeof its members-Pedro
ramicview of each individual,of the approach and the social network ap- Martinez,the father;Esperanza,his
family as a whole, and of many proach are overlapping and mutu- wife; and Felipe, the eldest son-I
aspects of lower-classMexican life. ally reinforcing.Relatives, neighbors, have tried to convey to the reader
The independent
versionsof the same friends, compadres, fellow workers, what it meansto be a peasantin a
incidentsgivenby the variousfamily employers,teachers,priests, spiritual- nation undergoing rapid cultural
members
providea built-incheckupon ists, policemen, social workers, shop- change.In thisbook I have triedto
the reliabilityand validityof much keepers all fall into place in intensive do for the Mexicanvillagewhat my
of the data and therebypartially family studies.
earliervolumeThe Childrenof Sa'noffsetthe subjectivity
inherentin a
The family case study is not in chez triedto do for the urbanslum.
singleautobiography.
itself a new technique. It has been Althoughboth volumesuse the techThis methodof multipleautobio- used by social workers, sociologists, nique of multipleautobiographies
in
graphieswithina singlefamilytends psychologists,psychiatrists,
and others; a singlefamily,thereare important
betweenthemin focus,in
to reducethe elementof investigator but their studies invariably have cen- differences
in thetimespancovered,
bias,becausethe accountsare not put tered around some special problem: organization,
throughthe sieve of a middle-class families in trouble, families in the in thecharacterof thepeople,and in
NorthAmericanmindbut are given depression,the problem child in the the quality of their language and
in the words of the subjectsthem- family, family instability, divorce, imagery.In both books, however,I
selves.In thisway, I believeI have and a hundredand one other subjects. have attempted.to give voices to
avoidedthetwomostcommon
hazards These might be characterized on the people who would otherwisenot be
in thestudyof thepoor,namely,
over- whole as segmental studies in which heard.
sentimentalization
and brutalization. one particular aspect of family life is
The contrastbetweenThe Children
Finally,I hope thatthismethodpre- considered,and generallythe method- of Sa'nchezand Pedro Martinezis a
servesfor the reader the emotional ology has been of a statisticalnature contrastbetweenurbanslumlife,with
satisfaction
and understanding
which with emphasisupon large numbersof its crowding,its lack of privacy,its
the anthropologistexperiences in cases supplementedby interviewsand rapid pace, the earlydevelopment
of
workingdirectlywithhis subjectsbut questionnaires. Despite all the em- sexuality,and the intensesociability
whichis onlyrarelyconveyedin the phasis in the textbookson the family and expressiveness
of the people,and
formal jargon of anthropological as an integratedwhole, there is little peasant village life, with its slower
monographs.
published material in which the rhythms,its greater stability and
onprivacy,
itsemphasis
traditionalism,
Becausethefamilyis a smallsocial family is studied as that.
If the sociological studies of the and the reserved,withdrawn,and
system,it lends itselfto the holistic
approach.Family studiesbridgethe family have tended to be of the seg- suspiciousnatureof the people. The
gap betweenthe conceptualextremes mental, specific problem type, the Martinez children,under the strict
had lessfreedom,
of cultureat one pole and the in- work of the anthropologisthas been controlof thefather,
feweroutsideindividual at the other; we see both of the opposite kind, that is, gener- feweralternatives,
cultureand personalityas they are alized description with little or no fluences,and fewerways of escape
in real life.
interrelated
sense of problem. In most anthropo- thandid thechildrenof Sanchez.The
It is in the contextof the family logical communitystudies the family Sanchezfamilyshowsa greater
variety
between is presented as a stereotype.We are of moods,fromexuberantjoyousness
that the interrelationships
culturaland individualfactorsin the told not about a particular family, and abandon to dark despair,from
can best be but about familylife in general,under luxuriousthoughtlessness
to panicky
formationof personality
froma moodof carnival
seen.Familycase studiescan therefore headings such as composition, resi- self-criticism,
enableus to betterdistinguish
between dence rules, descent rules, kinship to a mood of atonement.
Pedro Marand give properweightto thosefac- obligations, parental authority,mar- tinez and his familyare much more
tors which are cultural and those riage forms and regulations, separa- emotionallyconstricted.
There is less
whichare situationalor the resultof tion, and so on. And always the flux,less color,less joy.
individualidiosyncracies.
Even psy- emphasis is upon the presentationof
The worldview of Pedro Martinez
chologicaltestsbecomemoremeaning- the structuraland formal aspects of and his familyis less familiarand
the family rather than upon the con- less accessibleto most readersthan
ful whendone on a familybasis.
The family is the natural unit for tent and variety of actual familylife. that of the childrenof Sainchez.The
the study of the satisfactions,frustraMy intensive studies of families values,language,imagery,
and way of.
tions, and maladjustmentsof individuals who live under a specific type
Vol. 8 . No. 5 . December 1967
have in each case grown out of a
larger researchdesign.Pedro Martinez
thought of The Children of Sa'nchez
reflectmuch more of modernWestern
481
culture.The Sanchez children,like during his lifetime.He has taken urban slum life in San Juan; to
mostmodernurbanslumdwellers,are literallythe slogans and catchwords examinethe problemsof adjustment
subjectto themassmedia: theylisten to whichhe was exposed,hopingthat and the changesin the familylife of
to New York; to developa
to theradio,go to themovies,and are each would lead himto a betterlife, migrants
at leastfamiliarwithTV. The family and he has inevitablybeen disap- comparativeliteratureon intensive
of PedroMartlnezwas, and is, more pointed.He was not attunedto the familycase studies; to devise new
by underlyingmiddle-class values of field methods and new ways of
isolatedandmuchfluessinfluenced
familydata;
and presenting
Mexico and did organizing
massmedia.Even in language,these post-Revolutionary
are reflected.In Azteca, not adapt quickly enough to the and finally,to test and refinethe
differences
most people are bilingual,speaking realitiesof the growingmoneyecon- conceptof a cultureof povertyby a
both Nahuatl (the language of the omy.Time and moneywere of little comparison of my Mexican and
to him; a higherstandard PuertoRican data.
Aztecs)and Spanish,whereasin the importance
Casa Grandeonly Spanishis spoken. of living and status-through-wealth The Rlos familypresentedin La
The storyof Pedro Martlnezgives were not his goals. He hoped to Vida consistsof five households:a
in
accounts achieverecognition
andrespect
through motherand two marrieddaughters
us one of thefew first-hand
of a greatrevolutionas seen by a "good works" and communaleffort, PuertoRico and a marriedson and
peasantwho not only lived through but was only partially successful. daughterin New York City. The
it butactivelyparticipatedand iden- Moreover,as the Revolutiontook an mother,FernandaFuentes,a Negro
tifiedwith its ideals. It is a tribute increasinglyconservativeturn, he womanof 40, is now livingwithher
to the Mexican Revolutionthat it foundhimselfon the losingside. In sixthhusbandin La Esmeralda,a San
Soledad,25,
imbuedpoor and illiteratepeasants politics,Pedro has ended up a dis- Juanslum.Her children,
likePedrowithidealsof socialjustice illusionedand confusedman.He gave Felicita,23, Simplicio,21, and Cruz,
whichgave meaningto their lives. lip serviceto the democraticideals 19, werebornto Fernandawhileshe
someof of theRevolutionbut could not truly was living in free union with her
Pedro'slifestoryillustrates
them,particularly
of understand
as they firsthusband,CristobalRios, a lightand shortcomings
theachievements
the Mexican Revolutionon the vil- operated on the village and state skinnedPuertoRican.
In addition to the five major
lage level. Today in Azteca, Pedro's level.By thetimehe was an old man,
admiringthe characters,
I have includedthe views
village,thereis no longerthepawning Pedro was nostalgically
of children,no beatingof peoneson strong monolithiccharacterof the of the spouses,of two younggrandhaciendas,no monopoly Dfaz regimewhich he had fought children,ages 7 and 9, of a maternal
neighboring
and the land againstin his youth.
aunt, and of a close friendof the
of thelocal government
Thereis a tendency
amongall of us, family.In all, sixteenPuertoRicans,
by thecaciques.At thesame
resources
to idealize the rangingin ages from7 to 64 and
time, there has been a tremendous even anthropologists,
increasein the facilitiesof public past and to thinkof MexicanIndian representingfour generations,tell
education;in theMartlnezfamilythe villagespriorto theMexicanRevolu- theirlife storiesand those of their
This gives
parentsand most of their relatives tion of 1910 as relativelystable, parentsand grandparents.
among the older generationwere well-ordered,smoothlyfunctioning,the readera historicaldepthof well
Pedro's over 100 years,revealsthe patterns
communities.
illiterate,but Pedro educatedtwo of and harmonious
his childrenand his grandsonto be story, however, reveals social disor- of change and stabilityover many
and providessome conPeasants like Pedro ganization,sharp class cleavages,wide- generations,
schoolteachers.
now have the opportunityto par- spread poverty, and the proletariani- trastsbetweenruraland urbanfamily
in zation of the landless segmentof the patterns.
ticipatein the local government,
elections,and in the political life population. It also shows the existence
AlthoughI call thisbook a family
ofPedro's of many of the traits of the culture study,thenumberof peopleinvolved
feature
A striking
generally.
accountis that it revealsthe intense of poverty-consensual unions, the is greaterthanthepopulationof some
ofpeasantsin community abandonmentof women and children, village communitiesdescribed in
participation
afterthe Revolu- child labor, adultery,and a feelingof anthropological
affairsimmediately
Nineteen
monographs.
tion. Indeed, Pedro, with only one alienation. One of the major accom- related households,11 in San Juan
year of formal schooling, was more plishmentsof the Revolution for vil- and 8 in New York City, with a
in touch with national agencies and lages like Azteca was to return to total population of 55 individuals,
thisvolume.
events during the '20's and '30's than the villagers the privilege of utilizing werestudiedin preparing
are his more educated children at their communal lands. This slowed The book also includesdata on 12
down or stopped the process of prole- other households.In all, over 300
present.
'
Few men have undergone greater tarianization and eliminated many of individualsappearin thesepages.
the
of
traits
the
culture of poverty.
Perhapsthe mostimportantmethchanges within a lifetime.Pedro has
However, poverty itself has re- odologicalinnovationin this volume
changed from an Indian to a mestizo
way of life, from the Nahuatl to the mained. The description of village as comparedto my earlier studies,
Spanish language, from an illiterate conditionsafterthe Revolutionhardly Five Families,The Childrenof Satnencourages a Rousseauan view of chez,and PedroMartinez,is themuch
to a "half-lawyer,"from a peon to a
village politician, from a Catholic to peasant life. The stories of Pedro; broadercanvasof thefamilyportrait,
Esperanza, and Felipe reveal the per- the intensification
of the technique
a Seventh Day Adventist.
are
Pedro's life has been a search for sistenceof poverty,hunger,ignorance, wherebyindividualsand incidents
ideals and causes with which to identify: Catholicism, zapatismo, village
politics, education, and most recently,
Adventism and religious evangelism.
He has become disillusioned with
them all. His meager educational
background and the effectsof severe
deprivation on his .character have
made him unable to absorb and to
integratemeaningfullythe many new
ideas to which he has been subject
482
disease, suspicion, suffering,cruelty,
corruption,and a pervading quality
of fear, envy, and distrustin interpersonal relations.
La Vida is the first of a series of
volumes based upon a study of 100
Puerto Rican familiesfromfourslums
of Greater San Juan and of their
relatives in New York City. The
major objectives of the study were to
contribute to our understanding of
seen from multiple points of view,
and the combinationof multiple biographies with observed typical days.
The biographies provide a subjective
view of each of the characters,
whereas the days give us a more
objective account of their actual
behavior. The two types of data supplement each other and set up a
counterpointwhich makes for a more
balanced picture. On the whole, the
CURRENT
ANTHROPOLOGY
observeddaysgive a greatersenseof
Lewis: CHILDREN OF SANCHEZ, PEDRO MARTINEZ, LAVIDA
vividnessand warmer glimpsesof
thesepeoplethando theirown auto- as theyare withlittledesireto change faremeasures.
Tokyoand Osaka, both
biographies.And because the days and do not indulgein soul-searching centersof economic activity,have
includea description
not only of the or introspection.
The leadingcharac- large slums.Economicdeprivationis
people but also of the setting,the tersin The Childrenof Sa'nchezseem pronounced.Slum residentsare only
domesticroutines,and materialpos- mild, repressed,and almost middle- partially integratedinto the larger
society.Residentalsegregation
sessions,the reader gets a more class by comparison.
is readily observable,and social intercourse
integrated
view of theirlives.
with outside people is to a great
and
The Ri'osfamily,theirfriends,
extentblocked,particularly
in case of
reflectmanyof thecharacneighbors,
the Buraku minority(see Dore and
of poverty,
of the subculture
teristics
Aoyagi1962). Povertyof cultureand
characteristics
which are widespread
someof theothertraitsof theculture
in PuertoRico but whichare by no by K. AOYAGI
of povertyare also very noticeable.
PuertoRican. They
meansexclusively
Tokyo,Japan.13 III 67
However,certaintraitsor tenacious
are also found among urban slum
dwellersin manypartsof the world. The method of multiple autobiog- cultural patterns of poverty are
contribution.
It missing
or yetto be foundin Japanese
Indeed,the Ri'os familyis presented raphyis a significant
in narrowing
the urbanslums.Marriagepatterns,
sexual
herenot as a typicalPuerto Rican has provedeffective
abstraction
and attitudesand behavior,neighborhood
of gap betweenscientific
familybut ratheras representative
and so on are moreor
one styleof life in a Puerto Rican humanreality.Amongtheadvantages organization,
and less differentfrom the comparable
slum.The frequencydistribution
of of this method,supplementation
seem to deservemore data in thethreebooks.Whentesting
thisstyleof lifecannotbe determined cross-checking
hypothesis,
it is
until we have many comparable attention.A problembeforemultiple a culture-and-poverty
I think,to makea distincstudiesfrom other slums in Puerto eyes reveals to us its wholeness,its necessary,
implications,and its degree of* im- tionbetweenclass difference
withina
Rico and elsewhere.
of Pedro's cultureand culturaldifference.
The
The language used by the Rios portance.Felipe'sdiscussion
familyin thisvolume,as well as that conversionfromCatholicismto Ad- authordoes not state this point exused by the other familiesof our ventism (1964:440), which he de- plicitly, although I assume he is
study,is simple,direct,and earthy. scribesmore realisticallyin a brief aware of it.
We have not done much research
Thereis relativelylittleuse of meta- sentencethan does his father,is an
Japan,
phoror analogyexceptthatcontained excellentexampleof supplementation.on class culturein present-day
scale. But
in someof thepopularproverbs,
and, Also, Felipe talks about the domestic especiallyon a nation-wide
thattheJapawhile the language is strong and animalstheykeepfortheirfarmlabor I suppose,forinstance,
vivid,it neverreachesthepoeticlevels (p. 312), while Pedro refersto them neseapproachto sex is quitedifferent
fromthat of the people in La Vida,
of the languageof the Mexicans I onlyrarely.
mothers
have studied.Most of the linguistic There is no doubt that cross- and thatJapaneselower-class
enhancesthevalidityof data, may find Fernanda,who abets her
creativityin the San Juan slums checking
in prostitution,
repugseems inspiredby bodily functions, yet I cannothelp but feelthatin the own daughters
primarilyanal and genital.The de- case of La Vida too manywitnesses nant. The "almostpromiscuous"bescriptionof the mostintimatesexual repeatalmostthe same things.There havior reportedin The Childrenof
scenesis so matter-of-fact
thatit soon may be an optimum number of Satnchezis not likelyto be prevalent
in our urbanslums.Even aftermore
foravoidingredundancy.
losesthequalityof obscenity,
and one witnesses
The methodhas succeededgenerally than 20 yearsof strongWesternincomesto acceptit as an intrinsic
part
in pinpointingthe crucial factors fluence,we retain our traditional
of theireverydaylife.
forpersonality
formation. patternof sexual modestyin public,
The people in thisbook, like most responsible
all I presumeregardlessof class differof the other Puerto Rican slum- The readercan cometo understand
dwellersI have studied,show a great of the familymembersexceptCon- ence. The culture of povertymay
culturalboundaries,
butperzest forlife,especiallyforsex, and a suelo. Consuelo triesto be different transcend
new experiences, when all the othersseem to have haps not everytraitof thecultureof
need forexcitement,
Theirsis an expressive acceptedtheirfate with resignation. povertywill do so.
and adventures.
Each of the books is full of data
style of life. They value acting-out I cannotfindanywherein the book
more than thinking-out,
self-expres- a concreteexplanationof how shehas suitablefor analysis,for exampleon
sionmorethanself-constraint,
pleasure cometo be thisway. Jesus,herfather, thefollowingproblems:
in Puerto
a) Culturalvalue systems
more than productivity,spending says, "She is a headstronggirl, like
more than saving, personal loyalty hermother"(p. 487). This is theonly Rico or Mexico.Echoingthe author's
I suggestthat studiesof
proposition,
more than impersonaljustice. They clue givento us.
are always inter- the lowerclass may revealsomething
Anthropologists
are fun-lovingand enjoy parties,
of a culturalvalue
humansimilari- thatis distinctive
dancing,and music.They cannotbe estedin fundamental
alone; theyhave an almostinsatiable ties,whateverformstheymay take. systemas a whole.
need for sociabilityand interaction. One strongline the authorfollowsis
b) The role of the kin-group.The
of thecon- author refersto "a fairly narrow
examination
Theyare notapathetic,
isolated,with- cross-cultural
Reading circleof close relativeswhichserves
drawn, or melancholy.Compared tentof thecultureof poverty.
MexicansI have any one of the threebooks,a reader as a defensein economicand emowiththelow-income
studied,theyseem less reserved,less will perhapsbe temptedto involve tional crises"(1966:xx). Many of us
depressive,less controlled,and less himselfin similarresearch.It is very are apt to assumethatthe reciprocal
probablethatwe can finda counter- roleof a kin groupis something
stable.
helpThe Rios familyis closer to the part of the cultureof povertyin the ful and beneficial.The evidencefrom
in contrast,
expression of an unbridled id than slumsof a few largerJapanesecities, thesethreebooksindicates,
any otherpeople I have studied. They typically
inTokyo,Kyoto,andOsaka. that kinsmenare often felt to be
Reviews
have an almost complete absence of Rapid economic growth along capiinternal conflict and of a sense of talist lines in Japan has not always
guilt. They tend to accept themselves been accompanied by sufficientwelVol. 8 . No. 5 . December 1967
unbearable burdens to each other in
terms of economic and emotiontal
reciprocity.After all, a kin group of
483
lefttoo muchon hisown to draw-or
to fail to draw-the rightconclusions
about the significanceof what he
reads.Lewisrightly
drawsattention
to
the dangerthat readersof anthropologicalstudieswill getlostin abstract
concepts;but we do have to have
some concepts,and data may appear
moremeaningful
when theyare systematicallyrelated to an explicit
conceptualframework.
No doubthis
conceptof "theculture(or subculture)
of poverty"providessuch a schema,
but a little more indicationmight
perhapshave been given,in the contextof each study,of the bearingof
the data on some of the numerous
hypotheses
whichtheconceptinvolves.
Again, independentversionsof the
same incidentsmay indeedprovidea
"built-incheckon the reliabilityand
validityof data," as Lewisclaims,but
the readerwould be helped,in particular cases, by the author's own
judgmentsabout such reliabilityand
validity.
The second difficulty
is that althoughLewis' methodof presentation
avoids the material's being "put
throughthe sieve of a middle-class
North Americanmind," that mind
has nonethe less been at workon it,
in so far as it has, in Lewis' words,
"'translated,
edited,and organized"it.
A fullerstatement,
in the contextof
each study,of the kinds of criteria
and considerations
which influenced
theseprocessesmighthave beenhelpful.
In a nutshell,what I am sayingis
thatas a non-specialist
in Lewis' area
and problemsI shouldlike to hear a
littlemoreof his voice, and perhaps
a shade less of his informants'.
But
it would be captiousto attach too
tape recorder there is virtually no much weight to these very minor
limit to the amount of material which criticisms;one cannot have everycan be collected, processed, and thingat once, and anyway further
byJ.H. M. BEATTIE
on thesedata and on "the
delivered to the consumerin this way. publications
III
England.23 67 Certainly the material given in Lewis' culture of poverty" are promised.
Oxford,
have books is fascinating,and the advan- Lewis' presentationof the life hisThe uses whichanthropologists
and of tages of thismode of massivepresenta- toriesand values of selectedfamilies
made of actual case histories,
or dictatedby thepeople tion are obvious. As the author says, in Mexico, Puerto Rico, and New
textswritten
they study,would make an inter- voices have indeed been given to York is a major and massiveconestingstudyin itself.On the whole "people who would not otherwisebe tributionto anthropologicalunderAmerican anthropologistsseem to heard," and the reader really gets to standing.
have beenmoreawareof thevalue of see these people in close-up. But the
such materialsthan their European sheer bulk is a little intimidating,and
colleagues, many of whom, until some may feel that the editor's scis- by CYRIL S. BELSHAW
recentlyat least, have been more sors mighthave been wielded with a
Canada.16 in 67
Vancouver,
concernedwith such drier topics as ratherheavier hand. Also, this reader
and functionalinter- at least would have welcomed some The anthropologyof culture and
the structures
relationships of social institutions. expert guidance, in the form of societyis probablyuniqueamongthe
Until a few years ago an anthro- occasional annotation and summary, disciplineswhichstudybehaviourin
pologistcould get by with a mono- through the tangled jungle of per- thatit does not deriveits boundaries
set of
graph on a particular society or sonal histories,interactions,and atti- froma coherentand restricted
Thiscould
assumptions.
culture writtenentirelyin general tudes which makes up so much of the methodological
of courserepresent
an earlyphase in
termsand wholly innocentof case books.
this class is often too small and sides of the Atlantic,recognisethat
too weak to reciprocate thisis not good enough;we expectto
economically
or to be reliedupon as a be givenat leastsomecases,and some
effectively
about aspectsof theirown
group.If I wereto pursue statements
sponsoring
the problemof how relatives are culturemade by the people studied,
If such
relatedto the cultureof poverty,I if onlyby way of illustration.
would evaluatethe negativeeffectof materialprovidesevidentialsupport
so
for the author's interpretations,
the roleof a kin group.
in muchthebetter.
c) The diagnosisof personality
With work like Lewis' the wheel
society.Value conflictis a
a changing
commonphenomenonin a changing has come full. circle. What was
and contradic- formerly
a meanshas now becomean
society.Inconsistency
tion in personal attitudesand be- end in itself.Lewis is not concerned
analysis;ratherhe
haviorare one sort of responseto a with institutional
changingsituation and may mean wants to tell his readerswhat it is
thatone cannotalwayslive up to the reallylike to be a Mexican peasant,
or whatvalues,principles,or demandsof an a PuertoRico slum-dweller,
culture.Lower-classpeople ever. So now the text is the book,
intruding
and analysistake
whoare deprivedof politicalor other and interpretation
even thoughtheymay try secondplace-so faras theytake any
measures,
has indeed
hard to live up to new values and place at all. Anthropology
ideologies,maybe forced,consciously becomean art ratherthan a science,
into inconsistencybutit is theartof photography
rather
or unconsciously,
(I have Pedro in than of painting. Incidentally,I
and contradiction.
mind.)Theymusteitherbe contented wonder if this is why none of the
or threebooks here consideredis illuswitha low level of rationalization
tratedby photographs
(thoughPedro
give up espousingnew ideas.
d) Migrantsand their sense of Martt'nezhas attractive drawings):
I would
belonging.La Vida providesus with it mightbe thought-though
could add
excellentdata on migrantpsycho- disagree-thatphotographs
of
logicalproblems;on PuertoRicansin little to such minutedescriptions
an affluentsociety; and on their the local scene as are provided,for
attitudetowardracialproblems(Sim- example,in La Vida.
Lewis' three volumes contain beplicio shows a keen insightinto the
problem of race prejudice,p.451). tween them somethinglike 1,800
Each of theseis not only a domestic pages,but onlyabout 140 of theseare
to the U.S.A. and theauthor'sown expositionand comproblempertaining
PuertoRico, but also a problemwith ment.Except for a few chaptersin
La Vida containingdetaileddescripinternationalimplications.
I admirethe authorfor his deep tions of days with various families,
and strongcommitmentthe rest is the unannotatedrecord,
understanding
to the scientificargumentof human takenoverperiodsof monthsor even
miseryand forhis continualeffortto years, of what informantsactually
of its said, in their own words. With the
make us realize the seriousness
invention and development of the
challenge.
historiesor texts. The reader had to
make the best of it, and take the
anthropologist'sword for it that his
interpretationswere the right ones.
But nowadays most of us, on both
484
These reflectionssuggest that there
may be two difficulties,in particular,
in this kind of wholesale importation
of field data into classroom or study.
The first is that the reader may be
the formation of the discipline, in
which we were still searching for
agreement and exploring for procedures; or it could representa wooliness
of thought,an intolerance of logical
CURRENT
ANTHROPOLOGY
precision,a denial of the value of
Lewis: CHILDREN OF SANCHEZ, PEDRO MARTINEZ, LAVIDA
accumulativeknowledgein the sense
in which the term applies in other and in the exclusionof the author us beginnings, insights, sensitivities,
subjects.I thinkwe shouldbe proud fromthe scene. In this he has gone hypotheses.
But as yet we don't even
of,and positiveabout,our eclecticism, muchfurther
than the "scientific"
or know whetherthe cultureof poverty
forit can enableus-if we can avoid the "objective" methodologywould in Mexico and PuertoRico is of the
the real dangersof dilettantism-to allow. Those who would wish to use kind we Would inferfrom the exforgea varietyof tools which will his texts for controlledcomparative perienceof thesefamilies.
be productiveto the extentthat our purposeswill be frustrated
by thelack
Nevertheless,
every anthropologist
sensitivities
and skillspermit.
of even a sample of a notationof has somepersonalexperienceor data
Oscar Lewis' workcomesat a time interactionbetween the questioner, againstwhichto comparetheinformawhen logical and statisticalmodels with his tape recorder,and the tion. The eventsrevealedto us are
withhis memoryand his neithersurprising
are receivingmuchattentionand the respondent,
nor novel,even to
searchforgenerallaws is beinginten- language. The text is emphatically thoseof us who have neverbeen to
sified. Lewis generalizeswhen he not a textin the Boas sense.
Mexicoor PuertoRico. We do not in
He doesnot,however,confinehim- facthave to go to otherculturesfor
wishesto do so (behindeach of these
focussedaccountslies selfto his artisticmedium,forhe has similarities
microscopically
of material;if we would
a considerableapparatusof cumula- somethingto assert which is more pay more attentionto non-middletive and statisticaldata), but he dramaticeven than the lives of his class or to causal-labor circles in
proclaimstherightand value of doing subjects,morecontroversial
and more Canada, theUnitedStates,or Europe,
so not by themethodsof science,but capable of objectivecontrol:the cul- the similarities
mightwell be telling.
ratherby approacheswhichare closer ture of poverty,and all that goes Exercisesorientedin this direction,
to thoseof art. In this,he illustrates with it. He also assertsthat in some incidentally,
mightdo muchto reduce
a tension which is continuous in sense the conclusionsto be inferred the impactof criticism
of La Vida as
anthropologyand deep within the froma studyof thefamiliesare valid giving supportto cross-cultural
inmake-upof mostwho chooseanthro- for the subculture
of whichtheyare toleranceor snobbery.More imporpology as a career.Almostall of us a part.As one studysucceedsanother, tant, they might indicate that the
are novelists,
dramatists,
artists,man- the implicationsof the culture of cultureof povertyis indeeda signifiOscar Lewis povertyare made moreprecise,and cant reality.
que. What distinguishes
frommost(but not all) of us is that Lewis extends the presentationof
One further
point:Lewis'booksare
to give backgroundmaterialin ways which deservedlysuccessful,in a financial
he has forgedan instrument
voice to this part of our creative are designedto suggestthe degreeto and popular sense. What will his
which the life historiesare to be familiesthinkof them?At whatpoint
impulse.
This is not to say that it is easy regarded as representative.As a does some kind of proprietaryinfor us to recognizewhat Lewis is strangerto Hispano-Americancul- terestarise?Can theobserverand the
doing,or that we should agree that tures,and in the absenceof a con- activistbe so clearlyseparated?Does
of even the statisti- one know people so intimatelyand
his path is ours, or that we should vincingsummary
assumethat his conclusionsand em- cal elements of the background not help, and if one helps,how and
phases are always just. It can be material,I cannotcommentupon the when?
to theex- pointof representation.
arguedthatart is successful
The cultureof povertyis something byTHEODORE CAPLOW
tentthatit communicates
or awakens
a comprehension
of some generalized else again.WhenLewisfirstpresented
New York,N.Y., U.S.A.31 III 67
set of relationships,
doing this by a it, I thoughthe was saying:"Where
play on emotiveand subjectivesensa- thereis substantial
povertywhichhas I was one of thosewho welcomedthe
overa considerable
tion,and above all by a close atten- persisted
periodof appearanceof The Childrenof Sa'ntion to individualevents(including time, the people who live in these chez as an epical event,markinga
objects). But the artistic form of conditionsdevelop defences,institu- happy convergenceof the realistic
is quitedifferent
fromthat tions,norms,whichhave a functional novel and descriptive ethnography,
expression
of analyticalgeneralization;for one validity under their conditionsof with a trace of cinematicinfluence
thing,the medium is different.A living, and which are resistantto besides.During the eventfulcentury
musicalcomposermay sensethe uni- pressuresto change."He statedthis, from 1840 to 1940 the realistic novel
versalityof the tonal relationships and demonstrated
it, with sympathy, enabled the average man to underwith whichhe is painting,may even yet with the observer'sobjectivity, stand a societythat had growntoo
knowsomething
of theirmathematical and with a realismwhich condoned vast and complicated for him to exbasis; but the momenthe triesto ex- nothing.The idea has the greatmerit perience directly.The middle-class
plain whathe is doingin mathemati- of simplicity
and conviction;
we knew reader,to whomthenovelwas usually
cal or verbal terms,he leaves his it, it was consistent
withour observa- addressed, could learn enough about
artistrybehind,and it is not even tions. Still, until Lewis elaborated the rich above, and the poor below,
certaineitherthat he says what he upon it I thinkwe werepuzzled by to satisfyhis curiosityand guide
means or that his conclusionis the it, and we are still sometimes
reluc- his political opinions. From Dickens
valid conclusionforotherswho enjoy tant to admitit, especiallywhen we to Dos Passos, from La Come'die
his work. This is even moretrue of are eagerforreform.
Humaine to Les Hommesde Bonne
painting,of poetry,of thenovel.
It is now clear to me (as it should Volonte, from War and Peace to The
Oscar Lewis,possiblybecausehe is have been at the beginning)that Grapesof Wrath,the realisticnovels
revealedtherichor the
workingwithinthe world of anthro- Lewis assertssomething
further:that thatmattered
pologistswho have otherconventions, all, or many,culturesof povertyhave poor, or both, to readers who would
is not quite willingto go this far. some essentialfeaturesin common. otherwise
nothave knownthem.
I thinkhe would like to have it both Artistry
is leftbehind,and the grand
The same hundredyears,more or
ways. His texts are artistry; this generalizersteps in. The assertionis less, saw the developmentof scientific
appears in their structure,in the use importantand challenging;it may ethnographyand the inventionof
of language, in the selection of incident, even in the selection of the
families as the subject of elaboration,
Vol. 8. No. 5 . December 1967
well be validated. But the methodsof
the life historiesare not the methods
which will validate it. They will give
diverse techniques for describingand
classifyingthe behavior of unfamiliar
peoples.
485
Both traditionsstill persist,but lastingfriendship,
thathe was deeply Lewis' work, because I believe his
some of the heart has gone out of involvedin theirproblemsand often observationshave more relevanceto
themsinceWorldWar II. The fiction feltas thoughhe had two familiesto us in medicine, and particularly
writersof theatomicage have moved look after-the Sainchezfamilyand psychoanalyticpsychiatry,than we
towardsa morepersonalizedview of his own-and when, in the same perhapscare to acknowledge.
Doctors
inwhichthesocialenviron- introduction,
experience
he apologizes for re- deal withsickpeople,andpsychiatrists
ment is somethingto be reacted arranginghis materials and says, predominantly
with the well-to-do
against,but the need to describeit "theselifehistories
have something
of nervous,most of whom are citizens
is no longerfelt,perhaps both art and life." The evidentdis- eitherof theUnitedStatesor a Euroexhaustively
because it is now too vast to be advantageof themethodthatproduced pean country.Only recentlyhave a
thoroughlyscrutinizedeven through Sa'nchezis thatit would not allow an significant
numberofphysicians
begun
a book. The poor have learned to authorto producemanybooks in a to thinkabout health,in contrastto
delib- single lifetime.Pedro Marttnezis a illness,and only very recentlyhave
speakand writeforthemselves,
the middle-class little more hasty. AlthoughLewis psychiatrists
eratelydisqualifying
begunto ask themselves
observerand his claim to understand firstinterviewed
the Martlnezfamily how "ordinary"people surviveand
them.It is a far cry fromSinclair in 1943,the tape recordings
werenot makedo, ratherthancollapseand go
Lewis to Le Roi Jones.
made untilten yearslater,and then awry.
ethnography apparentlywith some haste. Pedro
Certainlythe driftof Freud'swork
Meanwhile,descriptive
has been slowlyovertakenby a kind himselfis the only fully rounded was towardmakinga generalpsycholof electronicblight.The resourcesof character.The voicesof his wifeand ogy out of what was essentiallya
theory.Anfilmand tape have made it easy to childrenare heard only in passinfg, meta-psychopathological
accumulatedata withoutmuchnote- and thereis practicallyno use of the alysts like Anna Freud emphasized
it inalmost Rashomontechnique-thesame event how importantit was to observe,
booklaborand to preserve
raw form,unsulliedby intermediate independentlydescribed by several ratherthan speculatein an endless,
At the same time the participantsthat gave Sa'nchez so denselyabstractway, and to observe
interpretation.
and schoolroom
supply of intellectuallyintriguing muchof its interest.In La Vida the in thenursery
as well
materialhas declined,partlybecause author'sconnectionwith the deplor- as theclinicor hospital.Analystslike
few unstudiedtribes are left, and able Rlos familyis not very fully Erik Eriksonwentfurther,
by trying
but it is plain thattheyare to give psychoanalysis
a history,a
partlybecauseso manyvariationsof described,
methodhave been tried.The modern not his friendsand that numerous culturalcontext.The Sioux or the
may well feel that the research assistants,observers, and Yurok are not membersof middleethnographer
were introducedinto class Vienna or New York; and
interiorvalleys of New Guinea are intermediaries
notlikelyto offermaterialas richand theirlives to obtain a mass of un- whethersomepsychiatrists
knowit or
diverseas what he can find in the assimilatedinformationin a short not,theirconceptualview of the life
of the mindis a veryparticularone,
time.
canyonsof Harlem.
by the social assumptions
The cinematicelementsincludethe
The resultis a nastybook in every conditioned
bone-deeprelativismthat pervadesa sense,unfairto its readersas well as and customstheyall too casuallytake
film like Rashomon; the camera's its subjects. Lacking a conceptual forgrantedor denyto be relevantin
lack of shame and resistanceto ex- structure,
it has the arbitrary
quality theirwork.
purgation;and above all, its tolerance of fiction.Because behavioris deI mention
and trends
theseproblems
of the unexplainedmovement,the scribed with ruthlessimpersonality because they seem to parallel the
inexplicable gesture, the pointless and with arbitrarydislocationsof issuesand struggles
thathave plagued
whoseomissionfromwrit- sequence,the observersseem to be otherfields,among themanthropolhappening,
ten narrativesis a subtleand preva- undiscriminating,
unforgiving,and ogy-as Oscar Lewispointsout in his
lentformof bias.
utterlyinhuman.
summaryof his threebooks. I find
AgainstthisbackgroundThe ChilSa'nchezis a book writtenby a his workverysimilarin its effectto
drenof Sa'nchezseemedto embodya thoughtfulman with the aid of Erikson's.Both men have tried to
a more
disciplines
new form,at once more accurate, mechanicaldevices.La Vida is the givetheirrespective
than any productof a machine.
if you will-relecandid,and comprehensive
general-universal,
vance.Moreover,bothmenare essennovel, but capable of arousingthat
compassionateempathywe associate
tiallyartistsas well as scientists;
they
want to observecarefully,but they
withthe verybest novels.What fic- by ROBERT COLES
simulawant to do morethan record.They
tionachievesby a convincing
Cambridge,
Mass.,U.S.A.9 iii 67 wantto makethe seenand the heard
tionof real life,the new formmight
claim in its own right,so to speak. I have found the work of Oscar comealive.
These brighthopes remainunful- Lewis a necessaryand continuing I want to say how perceptiveand
filled.It is too earlyto say whether example-to thepointthatI seriously advanceda psychiatrist
I findLewis
I mighthave to be. I wishhe somehowcould spare
Lewis will have successfulimitators, have to considerwhether
but the two worksof the genrethat pursuedmy own researchwere not thetimeto educatethemanypsychiahe himselfhas publishedsince Sa'n- his book The Childrenof Sa'nchez tristswho lack not onlyhis empathy
chez arouse dismay. Moreover,the available to remind me, a child and compassion,but his shrewdand
how muchworkthereis developedpsychological
trendis downward.Pedro Marttnez psychiatrist,
He
sensibility.
is disappointing,
but La Vida would to do. For a numberof yearsnow I knows that concepts like "mental
be unreadablewithoutits large com- have beentryingto studyin a limited health" or "maturity (so bandied
It is jumbled (medical and psychiatric)way what about not only in public but in all
ponentof pornography.
and chaotic,and conveysthe impres- Lewis looks into much more com- theprofessional
journals)are not selfhow the ruralor urban sustainingabstractions,
sion that the author is implacably prehensively:
to be meted
poor manage in backward nations, out withfineimpartiality
subjects.
hostileto his unfortunate
to all who
What went wrong? Lewis himself fast-changingnations, or-my interest
-backward sections of a "progresgives us the answers in the introduction to Sa'nchez when he says that his sive" and advanced nation.
I want tO speak here of the psychoprofessionalinterestin the lives of his
earlier subjects turned into warm and logical and psychiatricimplicationsof
486
come within sight of the middle-class
American psychiatrist.He knows that
psychiatricterms can be mere substitutes for name-calling, new ways to
keep our fastidious,self-centered
puriCURRENT
ANTHROPOLOGY
Lewis: CHILDREN OF SANCHEZ, PEDRO MARTINEZ, LAVIDA
tanismverymuch alive. He knows,
finally,that the psychiatrist's
job is
In Mexico and in Puerto Rico,
In sum, then, I find the work of
to figureout what any particular
kind of behaviormeans,and that to Oscar Lewis a decisive and sound where the studies have raised most
do so requiresmakingsenseof deeds contribution to psychiatrists and controversy,the objections to Lewis'
ratherthanratingthemon someim- psychoanalysts. What he calls "the studies have been based mainly on
plicit(terminological)
scaleof"health" culture of poverty" fits in with what hurt pride and fear of malicious idenor "illness"-for which words like child psychiatrists have observed, tification of the subcultural variant
"virtue"and "vice" are all too easily insofar as they have allowed them- with the larger national group. Scienselves to leave middle-class child tists as a whole have taken a rather
substituted.
In a matter-of-fact
way, Lewis guidance centers. The quality of his reserved attitude, the same timid
makesyearsof psychiatricargument material is not only thoroughlyfirst- attitude which makes Lewis' almost
seemfutileand irrelevant.
Again and rate, but a grim reminder to us in unique scientific efforts daring and
again, I hear my colleagues assert another field how far we have to go refreshing.
I believe that modern anthropo"nature"over "nurture"or "drives" to achieve what presumably we all
over "adaptation."The words seem along have had as a goal: the ability logical science stands to gain from all
of Lewis' pioneer contributions.This
moreimportant
to manyof themthan to study lives.
is particularly true in the case of
any effortto look systematically
at
Puerto Rico, when we keep in mind
whatin fact goes on in the lives of by EUGENIO FERNANDEZ MfENDEZ
such other importantbackground anpeople(in contrastto the "freeassoRio Piedras,PuertoRico. 9 In 67 thropologicalstudies as Steward et al.
ciations"utteredby literate,highly
articulate
andtheory-bound
"patients" Anthropology has been remarkably (1956) and my own book of readings
to doctorswho are indeed similar). timid in applying its rich methodo- on Puerto Rican culture (1956).
Lewis has concerned himself with
In thesethreebooks Oscar Lewis is logical and theoreticalresourcesto the
both "biologicallyoriented"and in- study of importantaspects of Western the customs and personal lives of
tenton documenting
the"sociocultural civilization. While it is true that the living peoples; he has put forth imforces"that constantlyinfluenceour holistic approach of our science is pressive documentson their behalf. It
thoughts
and feelings.
Ratherthanpit better suited to small-community now remainsfor all of us to listen to
hunger,sex, and anger againstclass studies,it is also true that given care- the voices of these "people who would
and caste,he aims to show the body ful planning and with due allowance otherwise not be heard." Here we
and soul fighting
it out or givingup, for the requisitedivision of labor, the have a clear cut case of cultureagainst
in the face of social and economic anthropologistcan tackle subcultural, man; or is it man against man?
odds thatseemto me psychologically biographic, autobiographic, national
impossible.Yet, what I find impos- character, and other specialized field
sible,what I "evaluate,"othersdeal studies with remarkable results. This by JOSEPH P. FITZPATRICK
withas everydaylife,and in so doing is, in my estimation,what Oscar Lewis
New York, N.Y., U.S.A. 24 III 67
reveal once again the ironies and has accomplished (when we discount
ambiguities
of life.They do not have whatever reservations, mainly of a The work of Oscar Lewis reprethe complicated, thoughtful,and political nature, that we may have sentsan extraordinaryanthropological
"subtle"mindsthat "we" have, but with regard to his work) in his studies achievement.It marks him as a creaPedroMar- tive innovator in anthropological
neitherdo theydevelopthe neuroses The Childrenof Sainchez,
method,an artistas well as a scientist.
that Freud wisely saw inextricably tinez, and La Vida.
tied to "civilization."
The three-foldcontributionof Lewis Redfield always insistedthat scientific
Accordingly,
Lewis is neithersenti- -methodological, theoretical,and in- achievement in the social sciences
required the giftsof the artist.
mental,romantic,nor unfairlyharsh formative-is truly tremendous. He
The popularity of Lewis' books is
when he portraysthe open, evident has based his researchon fundamental
lusts and joys, hates and envies of premises of anthropological theory no accident. He has brought the
people who quite obviously have and practice: fieldwork, the concept stereotypesto life. He is more than
never had any reason to learn the of subculture,and the expressive-inter- just a spokesmanfor the masses of the
rewardsthat go with intricate"ego- view, intensively pursued. On all urban poor; he has created an instrument throughwhich they are remarkdefenses" or strongly entrenched three he has left an imprint.
The fieldwork method has been ably effective spokesmen for themsuper-ego"activity." By the same
tokentheMexicansand PuertoRicans extended by recorded long-terminter- selves. It is theirlanguage, theirstyle,
he has studied can have energy, viewing which permitsapproximation their feelingsand values which come
vitality,and exuberance,which we to real-lifedepth-depictionof cultural through. Pedro Marttnez enables the
envy quite inappropriately.The documents, linguistic, social, and reader to penetrate a remote way of
warmthand candorwe as individuals, psychological. The theoretical con- life more deeply than any instrument
or even as a people, may lack are structof subculturehas been sharpened I know. And La Vida and The Chilnot quite the incrediblerestlessness by the definition,in termsof some 70 dren of Sa'nchez throw into perspecand animationone findsdescribedor traits,of the "culture of poverty," as tive patterns of behavior which are
avowed in The Childrenof Sa'nchez one persistingand extended structural not only misunderstoodbut ordinarily
or La Vida. The sourcesare thesame, aspect of modern Western (urban- judged as barbarous or revolting by
in the blood and heartwe all have industrial) civilization. Finally, the thewider world of rich and poor to
at birth(and to someextentkeep or wealth of detail on life in the Mexican whom this way of life is foreign.
lose as we grow up) but the knotty, village and in the Puerto Rican and
However, the very strength of
restrained,
self-critical
qualityof the New York ghetto-like-slumsas re- Lewis' books, particularly La Vida
middle-classWestern mind makes vealed in the biographiesof members and The Children of Sainchez,involves
mostof the emotionsthat surfacein of actual families,which are in some their greatest danger. It is extremely
us a pale (and richly intricate) contrast to what surges forth in certain
parts of Mexico City, San Juan, or
New York City, and in my experience
Boston, too.
Vol. 8 . No. 5 . December 1967
aspects typical and in others simply
illustrativeof the conditionsof life in
national variants of the culture of
poverty, is truly massive and highly
revealing.
importantthat the intimatedetails of
the lives of the people in these books
be reported for scientificstudy and
analysis; but widespread popular circulation exposes the data to misunder487
standingand possible misuse.The lives
of people in the culture of poverty
should perhaps be shielded from the
view of the merelycurious, who will
almostsurelymisjudgethemand who,
in cases such as that of Mexicans and
Puerto Ricans, may use theirmisjudgment to rationalize damaging forms
of discrimination.Therefore, serious
considerationmust be given in studies
like those of Lewis to the potential
injuryto which it exposes the people
who are studied.This mustbe weighed
against the importance of communicating insightsto a serious public. As
a prominentPuerto Rican educator
has said of La Vida: "The danger of
over-generalizationis great; but even
more dangerousis the situation where
teachers,social workers, and others
are dealing with this type of Puerto
Rican people withoutthe insightsthat
Lewis' book. can give."
The increasing clarification of the
concept of the culture of poverty is
also very important.It is significant
that Lewis has been able to identify
thisparticularlife style with one type
of poor people throughoutthe world.
What I think is even more important
is the fact that he detects this as a
styleof life which was presentamong
peasant peoples centuries ago. It
indicatesthat unlesspeople participate
effectively, no matter what the
economicor social system,in decisions
which vitally affect their lives, they
are inclined to develop the culture of
poverty as a mechanism of survival
and defense.Thus the efforts,particularly in Latin America, to bring the
peasant populations to awareness of
themselvesand of their situation, to
help them mobilize their resourcesto
assume a position of strengthin the
political life of their nations, are seen
as essential steps in basic human
development.
What needs more exploration is
Lewis' conviction that the culture of
poverty is damaging to the person.
There are widespread effortstoday to
call the attentionof the middle class
to the strengthsof the poor, and the
important values in the lives of the
poor. This sometimes results in a
denigration of certain aspects of
middle-class life which appear to be
universally related to human fulfilment. What is evidently needed here
is a careful comparative study of
values and the manner in which basic
values become related to life styles
and culture. For example, it appears
that, in the case of JesusSainchezand
Pedro Martinez, values were strongly
at work in their lives which could
have brought them to middle-class
status. How does one explain the
origin and expressionof these values
in the lives of these two men, and of
many more? There are many similarities betweenPedro Martinez and Taso
488
Zayas, the Puerto Rican whose life
historyis given by Mintz (1960). The
interestingconversionof both men to
Pentecostal forms of religious belief
and behavior seemsto reflectthe prior
existence of values of discipline,
deferred gratification,and responsibility which are related to rniddleclass success. The people of La Vida
often express their desire for human
qualities and styles of human interaction (respect, consideration, affection, etc.) which are found outside the
culture of poverty. How, therefore,
do we set about identifying the
strengths and values of the poor,
whether in or out of the culture of
poverty, in contrast to the values of
the middle class? And, much more
important,how do we evaluate the
quality of personal developmentwhich
is related to these differingvalues?
Lewis' descriptionof the poor in the
culture of poverty, with all the insights it gives into the values and
strengthsof thesepeople, indicatesalso
that there are values which transcend
social class, and, according to these,
there are damaging features to the
culture of poverty which should not
be permitted to continue. If Lewis
can clarify these problems in his
futurestudies,he will contributemuch
to our knowledge of man, and to the
developmentof public policy in relation to the poor.
by MARVIN K. OPLER
Buffalo,
N.Y., U.S.A. 27 III 67
Because of space limits,I am confining
my criticismto the one book, La Vida,
to Lewis' precis, and to his concept
of "culture of poverty." Lewis states
his problem as being "the psychology
of people." His commentthat people
on the poverty level "have not been
studied intensively by psychologists
or psychiatrists" is entirely wrong
(see, e.g., Rohrerand Edmonson 1960).
I happen to be writingthis account in
Puerto Rico following studies begun
in 1952 and including a ten-year
study of Puerto Rican families in
New York and on the island. The
Midtown Manhattan Mental Health
Research Study, for which I am the
principal anthropologicalinvestigator,
is certainly known to Lewis, since I
and other researcherson the project
discussed it with him in New York
and elsewhere many times. Puerto
Rican islanders and New Yorkers
have been studied intensively, not
only by psychologists and psychiatrists, but by anthropologists, including myself,as well (Opler 1958a,
b; Rogler and Holling.head 1965).
In contrast with his study of a
prostitute'sfamily,we have randomly
drawn samples in the proper proportion for the poverty level and other
levels. An account of a prostitute's
family may produce a sensational
best-seller,but our studies of Puerto
Ricans-employed, on relief,fromthe
highland Jivaro backgroundand from
other strata-indicate that it is not
all representative.It is true that about
2/3 of the islanders are on relief; but
slum areas like La Perla and others
in shacktowns along the ocean water
inlets of San Juan also contain persons who are productivelyemployed.
Slums, La Perla included, contain
strata; for instance, there are Jivaros
at the choice upper end of the hillside,
and more urban derelictsin shacks on
the ocean side. This has been pointed
out by various anthropologists for
slums in La Paz, Bolivia and Lima,
Peru (Patch 1951; Fried 1959) and
San Juan (Opler 1958a). Cultural
variationswithin the slum are blurred
in Lewis' account, where he ignores
the Jivarosand workingpeople of La
Perla as contrasted with the more
urbanized derelict populations who
driftin fromtowns and cities.
Further,the concept of "culture of
poverty" blurs and levels, and, indeed, stereotypes the indigent of
various cultures of the world. The
blurring is a middle-class or ethnocentricstereotype.Lewis lists, for example, as one of theirleading characteristics not simply the hopelessness
produced by poverty,but a pervading
sense of worthlessness.For a simple
refutation, the reader is invited to
consult Child of the Dark, by Carolina Maria De Jesus (1962), a prime
example of a slum-dweller's ideas
about her own worth and about "the
worthy" and the "worthless" in her
estimation.There is littleof Carolina's
social ethics, applied to Ri'o's favela,
in Lewis' account of Fernanda and
her relatives. Carolina says, for example (p. 33): "Brazil needs to be led
by a person who has known hunger.
Hunger is also a teacher."
Discussions with Puerto Rican psychologists, psychiatrists,social scientists,dramatists,and poets lead me to
conclude that Lewis' unfortunate
stereotype can only aggravate the
tendency of many governments,our
own included, to overgeneralizewhen
dealing with poverty and slums.
Everyone knows that the "pockets of
poverty" in Appalachia and in our
urban centersare not reached because
the programs are not tailored to
either the "Hollow Folk" or to such
ethnic lower-class groups as we have
studied in New York (Puerto Ricans,
Czechs, Hungarians, Italians, Irish,
etc.). Anthropologistshave seen the
same mishandlingoccur on the more
indigent Indian reservations, where
local values, traditions,and economic
practices are ignored. Cultural backgrounds count heavily within any
economic level. There are "cultures in
CUR
RENT
ANTHROPOLOGY
Lewis: CHILDREN OF SANCHEZ, PEDRO MARTINEZ, LAVIDA
poverty"ratherthan a "cultureof
poverty."
Lewis' anthrofamilysituations. it is well to remember
whathe calls into threedifferent
WhenLewis describes
id," failingto note They attestto Lewis' talent,the in- pological restudy of the Mexican
the "uncontrolled
of his village Tepoztlan (1951), in the
theprudishJivaroswiththeirflowery telligenceand cooperativeness
and, in no smallmeasure, course of which a similarproblem
and often properly"Puritan" lan- informants,
ofRobert
guage,he is simplymissingthetexture the hard work and solid researchof aroseas to theinterpretation
Redfield'searlierstudyof the same
culture" his assistants.
withinone "poverty-ridden
and ignoringone type within the
The humantestimonial
is, however, village(1930). Whileit will be much
byJulian only one aspect of Lewis' work. As more difficult,if not impossible,to
described
populouspeasantry
Stewardand colleagues(1956). The a scientist,
have to eventuallydo a restudyof the Sanhe will ultimately
familywith the allegedly be judged by his contributionto chez, Marti'nez,or Rios families,the
prostitute's
id" is not even well anthropology.
"uncontrolled
In thisrespect,it seems doubtremainsas to how completeor
sincea more usefulto discusshis workunderthree incomplete,how unilateralor wellpsychiatrically,
described
or less uncontrolledid is a schizo- main headings:(1) ethnography,
(2) balanced,how unique or typicalthe
whichany clini- method,and (3) theory.
studiesof thesefamiliesare.
phreniccharacteristic
cal testing,psychologicalor psychia2) Method.Oscar Lewis has made
1) Ethnography.Being detailed
tric, would pick up (Rogler and
abundantuse of the tape recorder,a
descriptions
of
loves
of
the
lives
and
Hollingshead1965). What is required
researchinstrument
of fairly recent
to thekindsof traditional his subjects,Oscar Lewis' books fall vintage,in combinationwith more
is attention
in projectivetests into the hallowed traditionof good traditionaltechniquesof data colvalues exemplified
buttakeus a stepfurther
-the role of sexual,self-,and social ethnography,
the
in
that
much
of the ethnographic lectingsuch as the questionnaire,
simple
the
than
identification-rather
open-endedinterview,
and participant
description
is
done
by
the
subjects
playingup of sex "as an obsession."
WithexcellentcraftsmanOne couldeasilyrearrange observation.
Further,Lewis ignores the rural themselves.
ship he has put the materialtogether
the
materials
under
the
familiar
the
povertyand even the questionof
in the multiplefamilybiographyand
in the deteriora- headings-"habitat," "technology," the presentationof "typical days."
represented
gradients
valuesfordifferent "economy,""lifecycle,"etc.-and get The resultis a vivid, throbbing
tionof traditional
picethnographic
monograph.
populations.In PuertoRico it is im- a traditional
ture
of
naked
humanity;
the
living
portantwhetherone comesfromthe As in all suchcases,the authormust flesh on the ethnographicskeleton.
city, the coastal plantation,or the surelyhave askedhimselfwhetherhis These family biographiesare kept
highlands.Puerto Ricans say, "You materialcontainedall the data he frombeing"just anothercase study"
can't hide the sky with one hand" needed and, conversely,whetherhe by thefactthattheauthorneveronce
Much
in San Juanpara- neededall thedata it contained.
and one intellectual
of thelifehistories seemsto turn off his tape recorder;
phrased:"You can't describeour poor of theinformation
and, if the books were no detailis omitted.This attentionto
family." is repetitious,
by meansof one prostitute's
detail at the same time limits the
One learnsnothingin this book of organizedalongthelinesof traditional value of thesefamilystudiesfor the
much
of
it
ethnographic
monographs,
exthe
most parents'concernabout
analysisof thesocial structure
(which
posureof theirchildren,particularly would have been eliminated.On the is, afterall, what social anthropology
other
it
is
hand,
to
think
intriguing
aberraan
almost
sexuality,
to
girls,
setsout to do); for the accumulation
tion (with Hispanic origins)in the of all the data thatmustsurelyhave of detail,no matterhow interesting,
island.The slums,La Perla included, remainedon the tapes and in the does not in itselfcontribute
muchto
are too close to peasantbackgrounds, notebooks.The selectionof what is the understanding
of
society.
in
report
stateda leadingjournalistherein San important an ethnographic
What is missingin Lewis' books,
yet the general
Juan,"to have droppeddown so far is always arbitrary,
themfrom
in styleof languageand the expres- idea is thatthe readeris supposedto and whatwouldtransform
intosolidanthrosion of values." A leading editorof get an objectiveor balancedview of readabletestimonials
a popular literaryjournal,interested thecultureor groupunderstudy.This pology, is preciselyanalysis. Lewis
in what Lewis calls "fictionalized" is decidedlynot the case in Lewis' has used well the anthropologist's
study,hazarded the guess that Fer- books. We get a pictureof the cul- techniquesfor the collectionof field
seem data and the writer'stechniquesfor
nanda and certainrelativestendedto tureas Lewis'subjectsthemselves
theirfamilyrelation- presenting
a salable book; he has not
dramatizeand exaggerateboth lan- to see it through
guageand sexual exploitsin orderto ships,and thisindeedhas beenLewis' used his tools for social analysis.The
criticof Lewis' work
"field- purposefromthe start.Yet thereis anthropological
impressthe anthropologist's
work aides." Since the aides did the no doubtthatLewis' own theoretical would preferto see less naturalistic
reatranslationsand gatheredthe tapes, preferencesor researchorientations detail and more anthropological
there are many furtherquestions have played an importantpart. His soning. Despite Lewis' claim to a
about methodbeyondthe questionof emphasison the sex life and intra- holisticapproachthroughthe family
of his biographees study,we do not get a clear picture
informants'sampling,the apparent familyrelationships
weaknessesin projectivetesting,and -as well as hisownpsychoanalytical-eitherof PuertoRican cultureor of
of these,as San Juanand New York slumlifein
the fit betweendata and ultimate ly orientedinterpretations
in
briefly
expounded
the
introductions
La Vida, nor of modernMexico's
the
about
doubts
I
have
theorizing.
of methodsof inquiry, -lead us to believe that another marginalurban populationsin The
standardization
with anotherset of ques- Childrenof Sa'nchez.PedroMartinez'
not to mentionthe questionof field- researcher,
with
workrapport,and I findthatPuerto tionsor topicsfor study,with other story,becauseit is so intertwined
Ricans themselveshave raised this criteriain editingthetapedinterviews, his country'srecenthistory,and behave comeup with causea partof it is to a certaindegree
wouldconceivably
questiontimeand timeagain.
This sug- the storyof his community,
quite different
biographies.
is much
gestionis by no means intendedto morerevealingon thisscore.Thus his
by RODOLFO STAYENHAGEN
belittleLewis' important
contribution,biographyis the perfectcomplement
Mexico, D.F., Mexico. 20 III 67 but only to point to the pitfallsof to Lewis'community
studyof TepoztOscar Lewis' books are fascinating presentingsuch complex materialfrom kin. It is to be hoped that Lewis will
human documentsthat give us insight only one point of view. In thisrespect, publish at some later date his anthroVol. 8 . No. 5 . December 1967
489
pological findings related to the
societiesin which the Sanchez and the
Ri'os families live. Without such a
frameof reference,thesefamilystudies
will be left hangingin air.
3) Theory. Lewis' interpretationof
his findingsis limited to the short
introductionsto each of his books.
His major theoretical contributionis
the concept of culture of poverty,
applicable to the Sanchez and Rfos
families, but not to the Martinez
family,who are peasants. The culture
or subculture(Lewis states that it is
CCtechnically"
a subculture)of poverty
describesan urban social situationthat
used to be referredto as social disorganizationor anomie, but it is both
wider and more specific than these
concepts. As Lewis uses the term, it
appears to have taxonomic value, but
it seems doubtful that it can be used
as an analytical category in anthropology. Of what is poverty a subculture? And how does it relate to
the culture of which it is "sub"?
Lewis does not say, but he does suggest that the kind of social situations
he describesin these terms are to be
found only in the early free-enterprise
stage of capitalism and in colonialism.
(Neither Puerto Rico nor Mexico fits
the formercategory,and only Puerto
Rico fits the latter.) On the other
hand, it seems to be characteristicof
periods of rapid and far-reaching
social and economic change, in other
words, of periods of transition.The
people involved in these transitions
are themselves,socially speaking, ""in
transit." While nobody will quarrel
with Lewis about the existence of
many of the 70 traits he lists in the
societies thus described, to apply the
term "culture" here seems to be
stretchingthe concept as it has traditionally been used in anthropology.
Many of the traitsare in fact common
to people in otherclass situationsalso,
and Lewis recognizes that the way
these traits are interrelatedmay vary
from society to society and from
family to family. Perhaps the fact
that up to now Lewis has only studied
the culture of poverty in two Latin
American societies may make the
concept itself too culture-bound.
At any rate,Lewis' work showsonly
too well that these families are integralto, and the product of, a "classstratified,highly individuated, capitalistic society" (Lewis 1966:xliv).
This deservesfurtheranalysis,because
even though this subculture may be
"a way of life, remarkablystable and
persistent,passed down from generation to generationalong family lines"
(Lewis 1961:xxiv) and though its
members "are not psychologically
geared to take full advantage of
changing conditions or increased opportunitieswhich may occur in their
4901
lifetime" (Lewis 1966 :xlv), the main
reasons for the persistenceof the subcultureare no doubt the pressuresthat
the larger societyexertsover its members, that is, the structure of the
larger class society itself. In another
context,I have found the term"internal colonialism" useful to describe
the relation between the larger society
and the backward, marginal rural
populations (Stavenhagen 1966). It
seemsto me that the same relationship
holds between Lewis' poor and the
larger society in which they live. But
the concept culture of poverty does
not suggesta relationshipat all; it is
essentially a static, formalistic,nonrelational concept which Lewis applies
to an essentially dynamic and certainly not self-containedsocial situation. In fact, Lewis seems to have
adopted the old practice of reifying
culture when he insists that the subculture of poverty "is also something
positive and provides some rewards
without which the poor could hardly
carry on" (1966:xliii). Now, by
definition,culture is sometingpositive
and provides some rewards,and there
is no reason why poor people should
be any differentfromother people in
that sense. It is not the culture "of"
poverty that provides these rewards,
but the sinple fact that the pQor, like
all other people, live in society.These
difficultiesare perhaps only due to
the fact that the concept "culture" as
such is so vague and ambiguous. Did
not Kroeber and Kluckhohn (1952)
review over 160 definitions of the
concept? However, there is a particular implication to Lewis' use of
the word culture which should be
pointed out. Lewis does not believe
that there is somethingpositive about
being poor, but by introducing the
term "culture" with its "positive
adaptive functions"(Lewis 1966:li) he
makes it appear as if there were. In
other words, he seems to be saying:
"being poor is terrible,but having a
cultureof povertyis not so bad." The
implicationsof this position (if I have
understood it correctly) should not
be lost on applied anthropologists.
Margaret Mead once suggestedthat
every graduate studentshould go out
and study a culture.As primitivecultures have been slowly disappearing,
in recentyears graduate students(particularly in Latin America) have
studied folk communities; but the
folk communityhas also been passing
out of existence, or at least out of
fashion. I venture to predict that in
coming years many students will go
out and do biographiesof poor families in urban slums, who, unfortunately,will be with us for a long time
to come. There could be no greater
tributeto the pathbreakingeffortsof
Oscar Lewis.
by PETER WILLMOTT
London, England. 20 III 67
When it was firstpublished in Britain
in 1962, The Childrenof Sa'nchez
aroused immediateinterestamong both
social scientists and non-specialist
readers, and a paperback edition predictably followed two years later.
Pedro Martinez, though as yet only
available in hard-back, has also been
widely noticed and discussed.La Vida
has not yet been published in this
country, but anyone who has been
privileged to read it can confidently
forecastthe same kind of success.
The reason is fairlyobvious. Despite
the differencesin settingand in focus,
the threebooks have importantqualities in common. By portraying the
lives of poor people in their own
words, they convey vividly something
of what it feels like to be such a
person living such a life. The reader
identifies with the subjects, and his
understandingis consequentlydeepened
and enriched. In an extraordinarily
effortlessway, because the books are
so readable, each one opens up a
whole series of windows onto other
people's worlds.Readers often describe
the books as "like a novel," and
Oscar Lewis himself draws such a
parallel in his introductorystatement
to this collection of reviews. To the
reader who is not a social scientist,
this is the great atraction-the books
read like novels and yet, because they
are writtenby a social scientistaiid are
based on real-lifematerial, they have
an authenticitythat most novels lack.
Some social scientistsare prone to
dismiss Lewis' books because of this
very quality; they say, some more
tolerantlythan others,that his work
is more akin to that of a novelist and
thereforecan not properlybe regarded
as a contributionto the literatureof
social science. But this is surely to
take too narrow a view of social
science. Truth, like the devil, has
many faces, and rigorouslyconducted
statistical investigation, despite its
undoubted value, can present only
one dimension of reality. I would
prefer to regard the output of social
science as rangingover a broad spectrum, with intensive personal documents at one end and large-scale
statistical surveys at the other. No
one method,out of the batteryavailable, is the rightone, thoughsome are
specially appropriate to particular
tasks.
Of course, if social science is to get
anywhere near justifyingthe second
part of its name, there must be abstractions, conceptual schemes, theoretical systems. But social science is
strongestwhen it maintains the links
between concepts and generalisations
on the one hand and recognisable
human reality on the other. Lewis'
CURRENT
ANTHROPOLOGY
is not only that
major contribution
Lewis:CHILDREN OF SANCHEZ, PEDRO MARTINEZ, LAVIDA
he bringsthislatterelementinto the
nationsand busilyapingthem.
of sample surveysof machine-age
arena of discoursebut also that his in a shelf-full
enablehim to migrationfrom slum communities. One of the firstreturnstheyget is a culskillsand predilections
do so in a way thatmay perhapsdo With materiallike this,Oscar Lewis turaldesolation.
to bring togetherthe at successfully
something
bringsflesh and blood,
present unnecessarilydivided dis- real feelingsand emotionsinto the Torres-Rioseco (1959) argues that the
and scholarly
of socialbehaviour family of Latin America is imitating
discussion
ciplinesof sociology,psychology,
strength. the image of the North American
socialanthropology.
-and thisis his outstanding
family, which is itself disintegrating.
Lewis himselfis clearly not unIn our age of revolution what is
awareof theneed to movefromcase byNATHAN W. ACKERMAN
especially poignant is the agonizing
historyto generalstatement;he has
New York, N.Y., U.S.A. 15 Iv 67
contrast between the rich and the
triedto draw fromotherstudiesas
well as his own a seriesof general My perspective on the writings of poor. It is the haves and the haveassociatedwithwhathe calls Oscar Lewis on the cultureof poverty nots living side by side, the existence
patterns
thecultureof poverty.A criticmight is influencedby the fact that I am a of want among plenty, the stark and
arguethathe does not go psychiatric clinician focusing on the cruel banging together of the conreasonably
far enough.The threebooks under problems of family study and family trastingways of life that lends to the
review would be strongerif they psychotherapy.My work has impelled problem its devastating urgency. At
managedto combinethe individual me to reconceptualize"mental illness" the same time, it seems clear that
storieswith more generalstatements as a familyphenomenon,even though virtually all families today, rich and
and the kinds it is manifestedin individual behavior. poor alike, are victims of cultural
aboutthe communities
of people under examination.The Within thisbroaderconceptualscheme, shock. Signs of family decadence and
fact is that, althoughLewis has ex- "mental illness" encompassesa sequen- breakdown are well-nigh universal.
tendedhis techniquesin La Vida, by tial series of interrelated,interpene- There are, of course, crucial differenenlargingthe linkednetworkof kin trating behavior disorders among ces between rich and poor, but these
and by interviewingsamples of family memberswhich can be deline- are mainly differencesin levels of
Puerto Ricans in San Juan and in ated across threegenerations.The way coping-differences in resources for
New York, he has made little real of life of the given family and the saving face, in opportunities for
advancein marrying
thetwo elements. balance of social health and social escape and diversion, in capacity for
In La Vida the sample materialis disorder are intimately connected to compromise,compensation,and healdrawnupon onlyin theIntroduction, the emergenceacross time of patterns ing. The healing of family distress
and eventherelittleuse is madeof it. of vulnerability to breakdown in and disintegrationseems insufficient
It is by no means an easy task to family relationships and individual in all classes, though the depth of
build sample material and general members.My interestin Lewis' studies failure may vary enormously from
about social patternsinto of the culture of poverty is in the one class to another. The progressive
statements
the body of a book made up largely relations between family pattern and spread of family breakdown may, in
but if such a mental health and in the ways in fact, be the harbingerof the decline
of personalnarratives,
conjunctioncould be achieved it which social science and psychiatry of our civilization. If so, the antidote
wouldmarkan immense
stepforward may usefully join forces in a cross- is not yet in view.
The observer in Lewis' studies is a
class and cross-cultural study of
in Lewis'work.
for family life and individual adaptation. participant-observer.He becomes a
We should,however,be grateful
what he alreadydoes withsuch con- Lewis' explorations present the possi- trusted,helping friend,one who offers
summateskill.It would be foolishto bility of a new and more profitable "sympathyand compassion." In order
to carry out his study Lewis must
imaginethat,becauseso muchof the interdisciplinarycollaboration.
The importance of close study of devote a period of six months to
materialof thesethreebooksis drawn
their creation theway of life of impoverishedpeople making himself a proven friend. He
fromtape recordings,
organising is self-evident.To focus the study on must be on 24-hour call whenever
has not demandedimmense
abilityon the part of the author,to the prototypical social unit, the any part of the family needs help.
say nothingof his successin gathering family,is more than appropriate; it is Beginning as an outsider, he is ultithe materialin the firstplace. And, indispensable. Lewis reminds us re- mately accepted as an insider. By his
althoughthereis an obviousbias in peatedly of the social significanceof own admission, Lewis lived in two
families, his own and that other
selectingfamilieswhose membersare this study:
"good talkers"and amiablydisposed The people of the underdeveloped coun- family whose way of life he was
to researchworkers,the accountsare, tries represent80% of the world's popula- recording.He becomes "a studentand
spokesman" of the cultureof poverty.
in a generalsense,completelycon- tion. What happens to [these] people...
One wonders about this six-month
vincing.Many otherresearchworkers will affectdirectlyor indirectlyour own
musthave been struck,as have I, by lives. It is ironic that many Americans, period during which Lewis' interest,
parallelsbetweenthestudiesinMexico thanksto anthropologists,know more about his sympathy and loyalty, are being
or Puerto Rico and those in quite the culture of' some isolated tribe in New tested. What is the natural historyof
To givea small Guinea, with a total population of 500 this relationshipbetween a deprived,
communities.
different
than about the way of life of mil- segregatedfamily and a middle-clahss,
example,the descriptionin the Epi- souls,
lions of people in Mexico or India and
logue of La Vida of Cruz's feelings other underdeveloped nations which are professional observer? In all probabout her transferto the neat but destined to play so crucial a role on the ability the observer is firstperceived
and felt as a potential enemy and
unfriendlyatmosphereof a new internationalscene.
may be- greeted with suspicion, fear,
housingproject remindsme of the
reactionsof Londonersto removalto Oliver La Farge says in the introduc- moroseness, even open anger. How
suburban dormitories(Young and tion to Five Families that we are does he comport himselfso as to disWillmott 1957; Willmot 1963) and
of people similarly rehoused from
Lagos, Nigeria (Marris 1961). Cruz
conveys,vividly and with a wealth of
personal detail, the response reported
Vol. 8 . No. 5 . December 1967
concerned with
solve this initial suspicion and hostility? For example, was Lewis' life
people whose culture... is going to hell
in a handbasket before the onslaught of ever threatened? Has he ever been
the age of technology.... All over the physicallymauled?
During the first six-monthperiod,
world people are hating the light-skinned,
491
Lewislistensoverand overto thelife family unit. An extraordinarilyvivid
storiesof thesepeople,but does not picture is drawn of the relations
Only between way of life, family pattern,
yetdareto tape theproceedings.
whena firmbond is establishedcan and individual adaptation, and behe begin to make the permanent tween social disorder and deviant
no behavior. Of special interestare the
Thereis, unfortunately,
recording.
transactions dramatic effects on family life and
recordof therelationship
in thiscrucialfirstphase of contact individual performanceof the sheer
betweenthe familyand the observer, strugglefor physical survival. In this
that periodof transitionin the role setting, the elemental emotions of
of theobserverfrompotentialenemy love, fear, and hate come into stark
to friend.It mustbe assumedthatthe relief.The cravingsof thebody achieve
final tapingof the way of life is a an extraordinaryemphasis. To live is
repeatof earlieraccounts.To what to eat, drink, defecate, and copulate.
extentis this later repeat a faithful Throughoutall aspects of the struggle,
recordingof the originallife story? the yearning for love is paramount.
For the clinician the question of
One would also like to hear more
abouthow Lewis selectsand editshis selective reinforcementof particular
material,moreaboutthe questionshe patternsof coping and related defenputsto thesepeople whichare edited ses against anxiety is of great importance. For survival, sharing and
out of thefinalversion.
Lewis uses four approaches:(1) a cooperation, flexibilityand resiliency
topical study; (2) the family seen of adaptation, are essential. These
the eyesof each member;(3) people learn by doing. They exhibit
through
the familyseen throughthe adapta- extraordinaryresourcefulnessand agil(4) thetypical ity. They are alert and cunningin the
tionto crisissituations;
day. Each of thesemethodsselectively manipulation of their harsh environsomeaspectsof theway of ment. Effective action, rather than
highlights
life while obscuringothers.For ex- introspectionand a private struggle
ample,the typicalday givesthe im- with conflict,holds priority.It is difpressionof a more serene,ordered, ficult in this setting to distinguish
and benignlifethancan be foundin action and "acting out." These people
theotherstudies.It maybe thatwhile achieve much of their social learning
each day is liveable and can be through the process of "acting out."
managed,the cumulativeexperience Evidently,the familiesof the poor do
of a marginalway of lifeadds up to not pay the same kind of attention
the weightof miseryand failurethat to mental breakdowns as is characThe greatestvalue of teristicof the families of the middle
Lewis describes.
approachis the raw class. Among the poor, psycho-patholthis naturalistic
con- ogy is often simply attributed to
materialit provides;yetselection,
amongpeople.
densing,and editingmustplay a part idiosyncraticdifferences
in the shapingof the final picture. The poor are so intenselypreoccupied
On the otherhand, somethingmay with the daily struggle for survival
be lost in the methodof separating that they have neither the time nor
the reportsinto individualautobiog- the interestto fuss with those among
raphies.Comparisonof the different them who break down mentally. In
methodspointsup notonlywhateach general, the peculiarities of "sick"
can uniquely contributebut also people are treated with tolerance.
and biasesof each thatare
limitations
In exploring the relations between
not made explicitby the author.
family experience and the disposition
Lewis statesthathis tape recording to emotional breakdown, I have
viewof move- soughthelp for 20 years or more from
provides"a camera-like
and interactions'."social scientists. I have obligated
ment,conversations,
While a sound recordis invaluable, myself to become familiar with the
I do not think that it providesa literatureand have tried collaboration
camera-like view. Every known with social scientists. With perhaps
method of permanentrecordingof one or two outstanding exceptions,
has itsown the labor of collaboration has yielded
behaviorand relationships
limitations.From the point of view little fruit.I have emergedfromthese
of the clinician,one is concernedto interdisciplinaryadventures with a
obtain a gestaltof the way of life gnawing sense of disappointment. I
mood,bodily have long felt that I must learn all
whichembracescontent,
in com- that I can from social science; now I
total interchange
expression,
and socialactionpatterns. feel that social science also has much
munication,
In Lewis' studieswe get the content, to learn from the clinician. An effecand we catch by indirectionsome- tive blend of the two branches of
thing of the mood, somethingof knowledge is still to be achieved. The
but clinician seeks to understand human
and interaction;
bodilyexpression
we do not get a gestalt.
behavior through a participant ex-
counter.Above all else,he is launched
upon an expeditionto discoversome
Too often,theproblems
usefulinsights.
that are important
to him cannotbe
researched
by the knownmethodsof
science.In contrast,the experimentalisttakes the life out of the problem; theoperationis a successbut the
patientdies. What the methodologist
selectsfortestingand measuring
may
be of little use or interestto the
clinician.The variableschosenforthe
systematic
methodsof scienceare all
too frequently
trivial,tangential,or
inappropriate.
The clinicianstrivesto
understand
thephenomenon
in nature;
the experimentalist
unwittinglydistortsit to fit his measuringinstrument.
He takesthe positionthat unlesswe
can measure,check, and verifyby
the standardsof sciencewe cannot
really know anything.The clinician
is disillusioned.
He comesto the conclusion that there is a lack of fit
betweenthe techniques
and theproblem-that the conventionalmethods
of science are, in this instance,simply
no good. He takesthe standthatthe
humanproblemhas the firstpriority,
and the techniqueis secondary.His
plea is: Let us not take the search
out of research;let us seek bold,
imaginative,
new methodsto fit the
complexityof the human situation.
Here again I quoteLa Farge:
The longerwe studyhumanbeingsand
theirinfinite
variety,
the moreapparentit
becomestheycannotin realitybe encompassedwithinthespecified
rigidities
of the
kind of data that can be manipulated
mathematically,
even given the staggering
rangeof present-day
computers.
Somewhere
along the line, theremust be an interpretationarising from the individual's
observation,with all its weaknessesof
emotionand bias.
The Lewis approachoffersa fresh
hope for effectiveinterdisciplinary
collaboration.In furthernaturalistic
family studies,a professionalteam
composedof social scientistand psychiatristmightbringus to a richer
of the relationsbeunderstanding
tweenthe individual,the family,and
the communityin varying conditions
of health and illness.
by MARY
JEAN AERNI
Kampala,
Uganda.
13 III 67
Oscar Lewis has made a brilliantcontributionto an understandingof the
behavior patterns and problems of
adapting to a money economy of
several subcultural groups in Mexico
and Puerto Rico. The three books
under review provide what is rarely
The values of Lewis' work for the perience. He follows his clinical achieved in any anthropologicalwork,
psychiatric clinician derive precisely hunches in order to uncover signifi- an intense personal experience in the
from his naturalistic orientation and cant themes.He tests the validity of lives and sufferingof individuals in
his focus on the life cycle of the these hunches in a therapeutic en- their social setting. This compelling
492
CURRENT
ANTHROPOLOGY
Lewis: CHILDREN' OF SANCHEZ, PEDRO MARTINEZ, LAVIDA
personalqualityis verystrongin The
Childrenof Sa'nchezand characterizes
La Vida.The extraordinary
emotional absolve oneself from responsibilitymarriage.For both town and rural
impactof La Vida evokescomparison and emergethe hero is admirably dwellers, Christian marriage is a
with the work of a great novelist demonstratedin The Children of matterof social prestigeand is confinedto upperstatusgroups.Neither
such as Dostoievski.Much praise is Sa'nchez.
due Lewis for his discriminating The significant
hypothesisfor an- are most tpwn marriagesbased on
tribalmarriage,sincesuch
of all threebooks is that customary
editing;the people reach the reader thropology
throughtheir own expressionsof thereis a cultureof povertywhich marriagestend to be inter-tribal.
pleasureand of pain. It is evidentthat transcendsthe cultural or national Hence the majorityof town dwellers
he has given to the task years of settingand which can be found in live in freeunion.
preparationand many months of manypartsof theworld.Lewismakes
This instabilityof the marriage
on the basis of his relationship
in order to thisgeneralization
empathetic
is one of the core probrelationships
enablethe subjectsto speak so can- data fromMexico and PuertoRico, lems of Africanurban life. Women
in both of which Spanish colonial particularly
didlyconcerning
theirlives.
are beginning
to look for
As Lewisnotes,peoplein theslums, cultureis combinedwithan exploita- a new typeof marriagewhichis more
and less punitivethan the
urban or rural, have patternsof tiveand denselypopulatedagricultural satisfying
He arguesthatthereare many traditional
form.Childrenof unstable
behaviorwhichare outsidetheexperi- system.
may be givenshelter
ence and knowledgeof the middle- societieswhich containsome of the urbanma-rriages
class administrators
who are com- elementsof the cultureof poverty, withinthe extendedfamily.Children
mittedto amelioratetheir physical but not the whole pattern-among separatedfromparentsmay live with
and social surroundings.
His records them African tribal societies,non- relativeson eitherthemother'sor the
and socialistsocieties. father'sside and are subjectto the
makeclearthenearlycompletealiena- literatecultures,
to La vicissitudes
whichorphansexperience,
tion of the poor fromthoseinstitu- Lewispositsin theintroduction
tionswhichclaim to be theirspokes- Vida thatAfricantribalsocietieshave particularlywhen their upbringing
menor mentors:Government,
church, a corporatenaturewhich,along with involves expenses on the part of
union,educationalsystem,
or political villageties,will inhibitthe formation guardianswho have otherchildrento
of a full-blown
cultureof povertyin feed and educate.The psychological
party.
In Pedro Martinez,althoughhun- Africantowns and cities. He states resultsof maternaldeprivationfor
that whereverunilateralkin- childrencan lead to feelingsof helpger and poverty,miseryand corrup- further
or clansexist,one would lessnessand resignation,weak ego
tion,and callousnessin humanrela- shipsystems
tionshipsare recurrent
themes,there not expect to find the culture of structure, lack of impulse control,
is nottheanomie,therootlessstruggle poverty,becausesuch a systemgives present time orientation,and a sense
of inferiority and marginality-all
for individual pleasure which is people a senseof belonging.
characteristic
The evidencefromone Africancity, individual characteristicsof the culof urban poverty.Old
Martinezhas neverlost his devotion Kampala, does not supportthisview. ture of poverty listed by Lewis. This
to thesoil and to thevillage,although The predominantly
non-African
muni- early conditioning cannot be comthis loyaltyexistsin his childrenin cipalityis surrounded
by urbanareas pensated by later knowledge of
a more social form.The description containingAfricansof many tribes belonging to the clan.
of theauthoritarian
role of thefather who have migratedto earnmoneyor
In Africa, in the present stage of
and themartyr
complexof themother enjoy the freedomand noveltyof a transition,many traditionalformsare
as revealed in the biographiesgive city.Areasof denseurbanpopulation in question and being put to the test
greatinsightintothe familystructure have arisen,withoutoutside super- by people with freedom to move.
in Mexicanrurallife.
vision,whichmaybe characterized
as Many of the problems described as
Lewis has pioneeredwith several slums, lacking in the amenitiesof part of the "culture of poverty"
methodological
procedures
whichchar- sanitation, adequate housing, or pub- emanate from an inability to move
acterizeall threebooks: the use of lic security. These areas exhibit a from the limitationsof a subsistence
thefamilyas a unitforrecording
and higher proportionof men than in the economy to a money economy in a
analyzing the process of growth, general population, high mobility of constructivefashion. Personal adjustdevelopment,
and socialchangewithin occupants, chronic underemployment ments are made difficult because
the subculture,
and the recordingon and low income, sexual relationships traditionalhighlyauthoritarianfamily
tape of retrospective
life historiesof of a consensualtype or open prostitu- patternsmay have damaged the potenseveralor all membersof a family. tion, and a general instabilityof mar- tial of the individual to function
The new technologyof the tape riages with resultant frequentchange purposefully (as in The Children of
recorderhas enabled the editor to in marital partnersand abandonment Sa'nchez). The towns lack the social
achievepersonaldocumentsof great of wives and children. Many men cohesion which makes law and order
emotional validity. As a counter- come to the capital leaving their'wives feasible within the small village combalanceto the extremesubjectivity
of and childrenon the family land, and munity through the mechanism of
The Childrenof Sa'nchez,Lewis has not a few women have come to the projectinghostilityoutside the group,
added in La Vida the recording
by a city after an unsatisfactorymarriage and they equally lack consensus that
trainedobserverof the eventsof a has been terminated. Sexual unions there is a common social and cultural
singleday in the contemporary
life are contracted in the city without systemto which both the institutions
of themembers
of thefamily(a tech- recognition by family or clan and and theirrepresentativesand the comnique used earlierin Five Families). without payment of a bride price. mon people belong. The mixture of
The observedday gives a changeof Many men come from distant tribes tribes, languages, and customs, along
pace and added dimensionto the or from neighboring countries.,As with the attitudesof latent suspicion,
taped autobiographies.
The stylistic "foreigners" they secure the least jealousy, and open aggression which
deviceof havingeach memberof the remunerative work and hence are are endemic in African rural life,
family give his interpretationof the
same events provides the reader with
an absorbingchronicleof the psychology of familylife and of interpersonal
relationships.The human tendencyto
Vol. 8 . No. 5 . December 1967
least committed to urban life. They
expect to live in the city for a few
years, then return to the tribal area
with whatever savings they have
amassed to make a proper tribal
militate against such consensus.These
scarcely repressedaggressive attitudes
are most destructivein interpersonal
relationshipsbetween the sexes and in
the family,with situationsnot unlike
493
in La Vida existingin
thosedescribed
Africanslums.
I do notagreewithLewis'
Although
thatAfricais exemptfrom
hypothesis
the"cultureof poverty"as he defines
itself
it, it maybe thatthe definition
is not adequately based cross-culturally.The cultureof povertyhas
beendescribedonlyin urbanareas in
theNew World.
thethree
Despitethesereservations,
booksof Oscar Lewis succeedin the
author'smainobjective:to personalize
the sociologicalsituationof poverty
in the slums. Lewis has given us
memorable
"salvage ethnology"of a
economicsubculture.
submerged
offeringhis colleagues the original externalto, the people supposed to
materialfor scrutiny,
but thishardly share this "subculture"which limit
answersthe difficulty.
The anthro- the choicespeople can make, which
pologistmusthave beenan important make it meaninglessto plan ahead
personin thelivesof thefamilies,
and (even thoughsomepeople mightwell
ciryet he scarcelyentersinto the stories be able to do so underdifferent
and whichforcethemto
of The Childrenof Sa'nchezor Pedro cumstances),
M'arttnez.
Rosa, theresearchassistant, rely on personal networksof kin,
appearsin the "days" describedin La friends,and neighbours as insurance
Vida, but the autobiographical
narra- against misfortune.
tives give no clue as to the relaA more instructiveuse of thewealth
tion betweenobserverand observed. of ethnographic material in these
Having once noticed this gap, one books might be to attemptto specify
wonderswhatelse has gone.
the limiting factors of the range of
A third drawback relates to social situations in various societies
the anonymity
of informants,
which for people at the lower end of the
usually has to be preserved,par- continuum of income. Some of these
ticularlyin case studiesof complex, will be cultural and may emerge at
literatesocieties.It demandscareful all income levels (for example, some
codingto ensurethat exact kin rela- characteristicsof poor Puerto Ricans
by LORRAINE BARIC
tionships are preserved and that may be also found among richer
Saiford,England.15 III 67
pseudonymscorrespondthroughout. Puerto Ricans), but there is likely to
and growing Secondaryanalysis using the auto- be greaterfreedomof manoeuvre and
theimmense
Considering
mustrelyon the assump- variety of alternatives at the upper
uponanthro- biographies
amountof readingthrust
pologists,we should be gratefulto tion that the concealingof identities levels. Where one is tempted to list,
colleagues like Oscar Lewis who and possiblyof othercharacteristicse.g., "fatalism and a low level of
write books that are gripping,stir has been completelyconsistent.A aspiration as one of the key traits for
the imagination,and give aesthetic conclusionfromthesepoints is that the subculture of poverty" (1965 :li),
aboutthemanage- one should look firstat the objective
pleasure.His variantof the life-his- greaterexplicitness
possibilitiesfor action.
tory method, employing multiple mentof data would be helpful.
This questionof autobiographies
as
is a powerful
familyautobiographies,
In otherwords, a more sociologicaldata is relatedto ly oriented situational analysis could
us to see the basic ethnographic
means of permitting
they can make to provide a sounder basis for the comsame event or action fromthe dif- the contribution
of the actors. It the advancementof anthropological parative study of problemsof poverty
ferentperspectives
revealsthe ambiguityand elusiveness theory.Since there is a great deal throughoutthe world than the conof ethnographic
"facts" and demon- implicitin thesethreebooks,different cept of the "culture of poverty,"
and complexi- conceptualsystemsmay be illustrated which is a constructapparentlyirrelestratestheinterrelations
tiesof socialsituations
by encouraging by them. Lewis' emphasison the vant to large parts of the world.
of theoreticalimportanceof familiesas Such a study is feasible: books like
the readerto referinterpretations
eventsto the statusesand roles of natural units for study is hard to Lewis' provide the sort of data we
thoseinvolved.This is in additionto quarrel with, but I should have need in order to make significant
the acceptedadvantagesof the life thoughtthatit goes back a long way advances in the field of the study of
of presentation, in anthropology:at least to Firth's poverty, but not, I believe, through
history:its directness
thegraspit givesof whatit is like to We, the Tikopia (1936). Lewis dis- the theoreticalframeworkhe favours.
live in anotherculture,the coherence missesearlierworklightlyin attemptthat an individualpoint of reference ing to emphasizethe noveltyof his
gives to a studyover time,and its approach.
by JOHANNES EICHHORN
detail.
The othermain theoreticalcontrivivid,concreteethnographic
Kleinmachnow,Germany.3 III 67
On theotherhand,themethodhas bution Lewis makes is towardsthe
so-called
culture
of
In
It
is
never
clear
how
his
Almost
170 years ago, Alexander von
drawbacks.
poverty.
much generalization
about a culture opinion,a numberof characteristicsHumboldt spent four years travelling,
or a social systemthe studyof one can be singled out which together investigating,teaching, and collecting
familypermits.Here the old problem definethis culture or subculture.I scientificmaterials in Latin America.
of intensiveobservationvs. random d6ubt very much whetherthis is a Widely known as a scientist,author,
sample surveyemergessharply.One useful explanatoryconcept at all. and organizer of internationalsciencase can never be "typical" in all Sinceit overlapsin partmanycharac- tific collaboration, he was also an
respectsof any population.For in- teristicsof society and culture in indefatigable and devoted champion
stance,the Rios familyof La Vida underdeveloped
countriesbut is not of human dignity,and in his books,
is not necessarilytypical either of as a whole diagnosticfor a large diaries, and letters there are many
Puerto Ricans (cf. Lewis 1966:xxx), numberof areas'of the world (some proposals for improving the living
or of PuertoRican slum families,or of whichLewis notes[1966:xlviii-1]), conditions of the underprivileged
even,to be precise,of PuertoRican it is both broad and imprecise. masses in that part of the world. His
slumfamilies.
prostitute
Lurkingbehindtheidea of a separate suggestions,and those of othersof his
of povertyis the time, went unheeded. Liberation from
Anotherdrawbackconcernsthe in- cultureor subculture
evitableeditingthatis neededto turn ethnocentric
assumptionthat thereis Spanish rule, which many had hoped
aboutthenature would mean change for the better,
chaoticreminiscences
on tape into a something
distinctive
systematicpresentation.The unseen of the poor,be it the "unbridledid" brought only a new set of rulers
handof theanthropologist,
as promp- Lewis mentionsor whatever.This seeking their own profit and conter, questioner and finally shaper of
the whole, is, in fact, creative. How
much does this alter-consciously or
unconsciously-the data? Lewis shows
h1is awareness of the problem in
494
assumption is, rather like early explanations of the customs of the
simple natives. It distracts attention
from the existence of economic and
social factors independent of, and
tinued exploitation of the lower
classes. Efforts at reform in recent
years have been frustratedby rapid
increase in population. Despite the
increasing number of scientists and
CUR
RENT
ANTHROPOLOGY
Lewis: CHILDREN OF SANCHEZ, PEDRO MARTINEZ, LAVIDA
technicianswho are turningtheir
attentionto Latin America,serious
Lewishas givenus profoundinsight Lewis' books oughtto teach us that
remain.
socialproblems
is capable of
OscarLewisis one of thestillvery intothelivesof thepoor. Whetheror our micro-sociology
who has devotedhim- not thisinsightcan be made available uncoveringevidence of very large
few scientists
who could use significance.
self to the study of extremelybad to the administrators
firstin Mexico and it in developingplans for improving Anotherlessonwe can learn from
livingconditions,
thenin PuertoRico and New York. the livingconditionsof thosepoor is thesebooks is an increasedawareness
Generouslysponsored by scientific anotherquestion.The booksare long, of how we collectand connectdata.
is We oftenspeakof theanthropological
he has been able, with and the time of administrators
institutions,
patienceand kindness,to win the limited.Perhaps a summaryof the method as participantobservation;
of men and womenwho informationin Lewis' voluminous but this phrasetendsto obscurethe
confidence
are by naturesuspiciousand reticent workswould be useful.It would be simple fact that we observe and
whendealingwithpeopleoutsidetheir regrettableif the resultsof his re- participate in many more speech
As a search,like thoseof von Humboldt, eventsof any otherkind."Pay attenown circle,especiallyforeigners.
trustedfriendof the family,he has shouldfailto receivetheconsideration tion to what people do, not to what
theysay theydo," has beena familiar
lived in their overcrowdedrooms, theyso muchdeserve.
themto work,to church,
and sometimessalutary slogan for
accompanied
to school,to market,and to meetings by ERIC R. WOLF
many of us. Nevertheless,
our runs
of observation
on whatpeople do are
with relativesand friends.He has
AnnArbor,Mich.,U.S.A. 20 III 67 oftenall too shortand selectedby
in
participatedin theircelebrations,
situations.
Grasping Since men act and speak, but also circumstances
theirmostintimate
over whichwe do not
details,he has tried thinkand feel,anthropology
the mostmninute
forever have muchcontrol.I would bet that
to understandtheir feelings and oscillatesbetweenstudyingmen from no matterhow hardwe tryto observe
opinions,their expressedand secret withoutand studying
menfromwith- non-verbalbehavior,the bulk of our
wishes,theirbehaviorin troubleand in, seeingculturenow as designor fieldnoteswill be made up of verbal
pleasure, rage and delight. More machine,
now as a flowof internalex- statements.These verbal statements
he has enlistedthe help of perience.For morethantwo decades, always pass throughat least two
recently,
experts in sociology,anthropology, however,Oscar Lewis has attempted cognitiveand emotionalscreens,that
and psychia- to transcendthis antinomy,and to of the informantand that of the
psychology,
philosophy,
of hisresults, do so, moreover,by using "hard" recorder.But when we sit down to
tryin theinterpretation
and of studentsand friendsin the methodology
whichpermitsof repli- construct
our own abstractstatements
practicalfieldwork.His researchhas cationratherthanthe "soft"method- about what we have seen and heard,
led him to believe that people can ology of subjectiveinsight.The aim we blithelyassume that the very
make the best of any situation,even is to observeas closelyas possible,to processof abstractionrendersobjecone that seemsto us intolerable.
record as accuratelyas possible,to tive thatdoublesubjectivity.
I should
Lewis' books can be read like quantifywhererelevant.To achieve not like to be misunderstood:
I, too,
novels,but theygo even beyondthe maximumintensityof focus,he has wantour statements
to be as objective
about movedfromthe studyof wholecom- as possible; but such objectivityis
novelin frankness,
particularly
to thestudiesof familiesand obtainedthroughbettermethodsand
bodily functions,as the characters munities
tell their own story in their own individualsin families.La Vida, with not throughmagic.Lewis' books do
and sampling,its not abolishsubjectivity,
words.The mostundisguisedrealism its census-taking
but theygo
appears in the descriptionof sexual observationof daily sequencesof ac- a long way in makingsubjectivity
life. We read of familiesof eightor tion,and itsmanykindsof interviews, more"<tolerable."
a majormilestone
in reachmore persons sleeping in a single represents
Some will ask how representative
room,wherechildrenbecomeaware ing this goal. The resultis unique, theseindividualsand familiesare of
of sexual practicesat an early age, and it has wide implicationsfor theuniverse
and families
of individuals
of drunken
fathers anthropological
observetheexcesses
work.
for which they are made to stand.
and
and the love affairsof mothers,
Lewismakesa virtueof whatothers Each individualevent is, of course,
early begin to play "father and have tendedto view as a drawback: to some extent unique; so are the
mother"themselves.Early marriage thefactthatwhilewe claimto study eventsreportedhere.Theirvalue for
seems communitiesor institutions,
and frequent
if one theanthropologist,
changeof partners
however,liesmuch
to be the rule. Readinghundredsof looks carefullythereis at the center less in theirstatisticalrepresentativepages of detailson such subjectscan of everystudya networkof 15, 25, ness than in theirdiagnosticvalue:
be a burden; surely we could get 50, or 100 well-known,
well-observed, they are uniquely and singularly
along with less of themin a study "fully specified"individualswhom diagnosticof the forcesto which a
dealingwiththewholeof we treatas diagnosticof how thecul- populationis subjectiindersspecified
presumably
thelifeof theverypoor.
ture works. We may concomitantly conditions.I would be hard put to
It is difficultto understandhow fleshout the data obtainedfromthis find any study of Mexican politics
who abuseeach core groupby gatheringinformation whichshowsthe play of theseforces
peoplein suchmisery,
otherphysically
and verballyso much, on other persons whose intercon- as vividly as Pedro Marttnez.We
is onlypartiallyknownor simplyknow more,a lot more,when
can be so kind and helpfulto each nectedness
have we read thisbook, thanwe ever did
otherin cases of illnessor necessity. assumed. This anthropologists
A woman will make sacrifices- alwaysknown;and forthisreason- before; and we know more, a lot
selling or pawning essentialthings, quite rightly,I think-they have more,thanwe ever did about Puerto
borrowingmoney at high interest, always valued the diagnosticdata Rican familiesin slums-or families
etc.-to help a husband,father,or obtainedfromtheircore groupabove in slums-after reading La Vida.
on Lewis' concept of the culture of
information
brotherwho regularlybeats and in- eventhebeststatistical
sults her. If one were to ask why, the personswhose positionin observable povertymay or may not convince;
answer would probably be, "What networks
could not be fullyclarified. but thesebooks increasethe number
beenshamefaced of permissible propositions available
are we going to do? He's part of the If we have sometimes
family." This loyalty seems to me
remarkable.
Vol. 8. No. 5 . December 1967
about knowing so much about so to anthropology and decrease the
small a segment of the universe, numberof impermissibleones.
495
Finally, it seems to me important
that such books are written at this
time and place. I tend to read the
history of anthropology as an odd
dialectic between servitude and freedom. We anthropologistshave been
both the offspringand handmaidens
of colonial expansion, but we have
also been among its foremostcritics.
Now we are coming to discover that
we are also the offspringand handmaidens of an internal colonialism,
quite as much productive of powerlessness,social isolation, and anomie
as the externalform.I thinkit fitting
that an anthropologisthas been instrumentalin renderingthat anomie,
powerlessness,and isolation visible to
the world.
vida (translated literally, "a woman
helplessmentof mistrust
tendsto magnify
of the life") it refersto prostitution. ness and isolation. Indeed the povertyof
Lewis uses the title to convey this cultureis one of the crucial aspects of the
double meaning.For many of the culture of poverty(my italics).
membersof the Ri'os family,life is
This "poverty of culture" within
lived in "the life." Amparouses the the "culture of poverty" not only
termin both senseswhen she says: dehumanizesthose who are subject to
its influencebut also helps to explain
the almost purely biological character
of their basic values. In a capitalistic
societylike that of Puerto Rico, "culture" is somethingaccessible only to
the upper and middle classes. The
culture of poverty is a world of its
own existing on the margins of
"respectable" society.Hence the abysmal ignorance many of the slumdwellers show as to Puerto Rican
In the passage one notes the sense of historical figures (although this must
helplessnessexpressed by a belief in be explained on the basis of our
an inexorable destiny that seems to perennial colonial situation as well as
by MANUEL MALDONADo-DENIS*
be the lot of those that live in the upon a class basis) and theirseriously
distorted view concerning Puerto
Rio Piedras,PuertoRico. 20 Iv 67 slums. It describesvery well the sense Rican politics and what it has in
of frustrationand hopelessness, the
WhenThe Childrenof Sa'nchezwas
profound sense of alienation, that the store for them.
translatedinto Spanish and published
Except for occasional grumbling
in Mexvicoby the Fondo de Cultura Rios family expresses throughoutthe about the rich, the members of the
book and that it triesto counteractby
Economica, the uproar in the official
to witchcraft,spir- Ri'os family lack class consciousness,
circlesof Mexico was so great that it frequentrecourse
and this lack gives them a conservaitualism, saints, prayers,etc.
forcedthe resignationof Dr. Arnaldo
tive
political orientation. Most of
The world of the Rios family is a
Orfila y Reynal, for many years the
them belong to the Statehood Repubworld
of
a
very
dire
necessity,
of
Director of the Fondo. The publicaprecarious living on extremelylimited lican Party, a party representativeof
tion of La Vida has prompted a
the higher and middle classes and a
similar reaction among those in resources. Their attitude toward the traditional foe of both workers and
underpast
can
be
best
future
and
the
governmentcirclesin Puerto Rico and
peasants. The Rlos familyis anything
New York, who see in Lewis' volume stood when one realizes that their but revolutionary. On the contrary,
world
in
always
in
the
present,
lies
a tarnishingof the image they have
it seems to confirmMarx's dictum as
so assiduously tried to build in the the immediate. This attitude was to the counterrevolutionarycharacter
by
a
portrayed
recently
brilliantly
United States and abroad. In both
of the "Lumpen-Proletariat." Thus
cases one witnesses the desperate young Negro from Watts in his testi- poverty perpetuates itself with the
effortsof those whose commitmentto mony before a Congressional com- acquiescence and supportof thosewho
mittee when he said that the ghetto
the maintenance of the status quo
are in its grip.
requires continuous myth-makingand "has a habit of reaching into your
Lewis mentions Cuba and Algeria
think
life
when
you've
you
just
mystificationto silence or deprecate
as instances where the "Lumpenthe
of
the
mountain
climbed
to
top
any study that exposes the truth.
Proletariat" becomes a revolutionary
Settingaside the trivial and exploring and in one fell swoop bringing you force and thus overcomes both its
The
San
the
bottom."
crashing
to
the roots of the alienation experienced
sense of alienation and the strait
by the poor in advanced capitalistic Juan slum-dwellerportrayedby Lewis, jacket of the culture of poverty. But
in
never
like
his
Watts,
counterpart
societies, Lewis has indeed restored
reaches the top of the mountain; but Puerto Rico still awaits its social
the true character of social science, a
revolution,as Lewis' book shows only
radical pursuit devoted to the dis- he is much more passive and acquies- too well. That is why his book has
in
the
Los
cent
than
his
fellows
covery of man and society beneath
been received with almost hysterical
the pious platitudes expressed by the Angeles ghetto. New York offersno cries by those who, in order to build
of
continuation
a
rather
but
respite,
intellectual spokesmen of the powers
an American showcase in the Caribthe same. The "land of opportunity"
that be.
bean, have turned their backs on the
of
land
the
becomes
soon
prejudice
La Vida, like the previous volumes
needs of the Puerto Rican masses.
about the culture of poverty in and exploitation, the land of the
Lewis says that
Mexico, offers to both the social naked struggle for life and of each
his
own.
after
looking
only
scientistand the layman valuable inthe mostlikelycandidatesfor the culture
Life in the slums of San Juan or of poverty
sights as to the world view, the attiare the people who comefrom
tudes, and the orientations of those New York is a succession of events the lower strataof a rapidlychanging
who live on the lowest rung of the to which the subject reacts but which societyand are alreadypartiallyalienated
social ladder. The experience is dis- escape his control. The inhuman con- fromit.
turbing,and it should be. Only those ditions under which life must be lived
whose prudish predisposition will on a day to day basis leave very little But he also points to the fact that
make them shrink from an encounter room for anythingbeyond the struggle
fromimperialconquestin
with uninhibitedsex, or those whose for existence.As Lewis says in his in- oftenit results
which the native social and economic
of
the
subculture
poverty
troduction,
consciences remain unshaken after
is smashedand the nativesare
structure
reading a tale of miseryand deprivamaintained
in a servile colonial status,
thinculture.
Thereis a great sometimes
tion, can fail to be moved by the is a relatively
formanygenerations.
suffering
emptiness
deal
of
pathos,
and
contents of this book.
among those who live in the cultureof
"La Vida" means "Life" in Spanish; poverty.
it is a productof the combinaIt does not provide much support BeXcause
but in the contextuna mujerde la or long-range
satisfaction
and itsencourage- tion of "servile colonial status" under
496
I don'tobjectto Soledador Nanda because
is born
theywerein thelife.... Everyone
to a different
fate.Some babies are born
head first,some feetfirst.Take any five
people and you'llalwaysfindtwo wrongheadedones.That'sthe wayit goes,three
good to two bad. Lookedat thatway,a
womanin the life is a womanlike the
rest of us. And why say "in the life"?
Aren'twe all alike and human?Aren'twe
all partof life,in life,too?
CURRENT
ANTHROPOLOGY
Americandomination
and rapidsocial
Lewis: CHILDREN OF SANCHEZ, PEDRO MARTINEZ, LAVIDA
changeundera kind of greenhouse
industrialism,
PuertoRico's own cul- and unbridledcapitalism-coexistin worldat large;and whencolonialism
ture of povertymustbe different- our midst,the biblicalsentenceabout and capitalismhave been overcome,
and muchmoredifficult
to overcome the poor will remaina reality.But the Rlos familyand thosewho share
Inso- Puerto Rico cannotfor long remain theirlot will be on the road to the
thanits Mexicancounterpart.
far as these conditions-colonialism insulatedfromwhat is stirring
in the discovery
of theirtruehumanity.
I workedthe longestand hardest- major objectivesof the book which
over a period of 20 years-and in are clearlystatedin the Introduction
manyways it is my favoriteof the (p. xviii). He writesabout the apthreevolumesunder review. I was parentweaknessin myprojectivetest
by OSCAR LEWIS
especiallypleased,therefore,
byWolf's data althoughhe has neverseen the
Urbana,Ill., U.S.A. 1 v 67 warmappraisalof thisbook. Wolf is Rorschachand TAT protocolson the
I am gratefulto my colleagueswho the only reviewer with first-hand major charactersin the Ri'os family.
have given generouslyof theirtime field experienceboth in Mexico and He writes, "It is true that about 2/3
in readingthe volumesunderreview in Puerto Rico, and I have long of theislandersare on relief."This is
false. Only 15% were on relief.He
and in sharingtheirreactions
withme. admiredhis work.
Opler'sand Caplow's imputation
I found the reviewson the whole
to writes, "Lewis ignores the rural
and reward- myworkof a negativeand degrading poverty..." Sincemyresearchdesign
appreciative,
stimulating,
ing.In thelightof thenon-traditional view of the Rios familyis answered called for a study of urban slumand experimental
natureof the books by the commentsof Ackerman,Bel- dwellers,it is naturalthat the major
reviewedand the fact that I wrote shaw, Coles, Eichhorn,Fitzpatrick, concernof the book has been with
themfor a wide audience,it is most and others,who point to the many urbanratherthanruralpoverty.
Howand positiveaspectsof the ever,the life historiesof mostof the
encouragingto find such a tolerant strengths
in thebookactuallydetailed
and receptivereactionfrommy col- people in my books.Moreover,Cap- characters
leagues.It is also good to knowthat low and Opler seem to have missed the miserableconditionsof rural life
in the field of anthropology
in theiryouth,
one is one of theessentialpointsof La Vida; whichtheyexperienced
not and some of the statisticswhich I
not read out of the scientificcom- namely,that it is an indictment
munityforthe sin of writinga best- of the poor, but of the social system cited on national income certainly
seller.(For thoseof mycolleagueswho that producesthe way of life of the tookruralincomeintoaccount.
assumethatbest-sellers
are ipso facto Rfosfamilywith its pathosand sufPerhapsa morestriking
exampleof
I should like to recall fering.It is also an indictmentof the irresponsible
unscientific,
characterof Opler's
that Darwin's Origin of Species be- some membersof the middle class, remarkscan be seenin the following.
came a best-sellerimmediately
officials,and otherswho He writes,"One learnsnothingin this
upon government
publication.)
try to cover up the unpleasantand book of mostparents'concernabout
I was fascinatedby thewide range ugly faictsof the cultureof poverty. the exposureof theirchildren,parof reactionto mywork.The reviewers Judgingfromtheirreviews,Caplow ticularlygirls,to sexuality,almostan
answereach other'scriticism
so fully and Opler have joined the Establish- aberration(with Hispanic origins)in
and so directlythatthereis littlefor ment and seem primarilyconcerned the island."Actually,thereare many
me to do exceptsit back and enjoy with maintainingthe Puerto Rican places in La Vida which indicate
evidenceof concernfor the chastity
theperformance.
For example,Staven- image.
Caplow's suggestionthat my as- and sexual behavior of daughters.
hagen'sfailureto realizethatanthropology is as closely related to the sistantsand I werehostileto theRios Many of thebeatingsreportedby the
humanities
as to the sciencesand his familyand that I did not consider girlsin the book were givenbecause
withthe oppositesex
narrowidentification
of anthropology themmy friendsis patentlyfalse. I of misbehavior
with structuralanalysisis countered see theRios familyoftenand regular- or in an effortto preventit. The
by Belshaw,who remindsus that art ly, and theyare indeed my friends. three sisters,Soledad, Felicita, and
too can lead to generalizations,
and His statementreveals a profound Cruz, express the wish that their
by Willmott,who writes,"This is ignoranceof some of the basic and daughtersremainvirginsuntil martrulyto take too narrowa view of elementaryconditionsnecessaryfor riage.Soledad says (pp. 264-65):
science. Truth, like the Devil, has my kind of intensivefamilystudies:
When
many faces.. ." Caplow says of a completeacceptanceof the people, I wantmygirlsto be well-behaved.
Pedro Martinez,"Thereis practically a deep senseof sympathyand iden- I see themplayingwithboys,I hit them.
I hear them say dirtywords,I hit
no use of the Rashomontechnique tification
withtheirproblems,
and an If
them.... I don'tlike to see themdo im...,"
but Aoyagi citesas one of the enduringfriendship.
properthings.... I wantto bringthemup
special meritsof Pedro Martinezthe
Opler's unnecessarily
defensivere- to takethe straight
path.... And I won't
fact that it permitssupplementationview with its negativeappraisal of standforthatbusinessof littlegirlsacting
and cross-checking
of differentver- my workis counteredby mostof the like youngladies,paintingtheirfacesand
theirnails.Theycan use makesions. Indeed, in Pedro Martinez reviews,includingthose of my two manicuring
thereare manycrucialincidents
which Puerto Rican colleagues, Eugenio up when theyreachthe properage. On
I'll let themgo to the movies
are seen fromthreedifferent
points FernandezMendez and Manuel Mal- weekends
but
not
to
dances.And my girls won't
of view,and someare seenfromfour donaldo-Denis.Clearlynot all Puerto wearclose-fitting
dressesor plungingneckand five pointsof view. I can only Rican scholarsshare Opler's views. lines. That's how girls get snatched
concludethatCaplow hasn'tread the His reviewis full of distortions
and away....
book carefully.
A few exampleswill suffice
This conclusionis also untruths.
suggested
by Caplow'scharacterization to illustratethe inaccuraciesof his
In the case of Flora,who grewup
of Pedro Martb'zezas "a littlemore charges.He reducesthe objectivesof in the country,the strictattitudeof
hasty"thanThe Childrenof Sa'nchez. my book to "the psychologyof herjibarofamilyis clear.AfterFlora
Pedro Martinezis thebook on which people," therebyignoringthe five had had her firstaffair,despiteher
Reply
Vol. 8 . No. 5 . December 1967
497
her earlyphaseof myresearchI am prob- of possibleharm to the Mexican or
she informed
fearof punishment,
ably seen,as"a potentialenemy"and PuertoRican image.
mother(p. 522):
For many years, both in my
greeted"withsuspicion,fear,moroseIt was my dutyto tell her. I had gone ness,and even open anger."He even teachingand in my research,I have
offwitha man and it wasn'trightto let
Well, she wondersif I have everbeenphysically been activelyinvolvedwith the imherbelieveI was stilla seiiorita.
of field
mauled. What an aggressiveprojec- provementand refinement
had a fit when she learnedI
practically
Indeed, it
She cried,"You! tion! I have in fact not experienced methodsin anthropology.
had lost my virginity.
withthetradihe envisagesduringthe was my dissatisfaction
theconditions
My eldestdaughter!"
and had tional methods of anthropological
Papa neverknewit. If he had,he would firstsix months
of fieldwork,
killed I been mauled,I doubtthatI would community
havekilledme. Why,he practically
studies,and particularly
my sisterArlin when she took off with have persistedin my study.
the methodologyemployed in the
her boyfriend.As formy eldestbrother, Ackerman
wantsa completenatural derivationof culturepatterns,which
he wouldhave slit my throatif he had
of
historyof the relationshipbetween led me to explorethe possibilities
known
....
In prin- familystudies as a complementto
myselfand my informants.
studies.I wouldarguethat
Anotherclear exampleof familial ciple,I thinkthisis a greatidea, and community
concernand controlis expressedby had I kept a carefuland systematic the data in my familystudiesare on
who becameCristobalRlos' diary, I might have been able to the whole much more precise,more
Hortensia,
secondwife at the age of fifteen(p. provide him with some partial an- valid, and morereliablethan a good
about culswers.But even then,I suspectsome deal of the generalizations
584):
or forthatmatter,
about
of my colleagueswould say thatsuch turepatterns
One day he [Cristobal]invitedme to the a recordwas too subjective.It might roles and role structures.
(For
a
dismoviesand I went.When we got back,
of
cussion
of
some
these
issues,
see
follow
someone
have
to
possible
be
youshouldhave seen the row theyraised!
We were in the thickof the hullabaloo me aroundduringmy fieldworkand Lewis 1952, 1953a, b, 1955, 1960-61,
whenin walkedmy sisterMaria del Car- observeand recordall of my move- 1965.)
My generalobjectivehas been to
men.... She laid down the ultimatum, ments,speech,and the over-allinterrightthen and there."All right,you're actions with my informants.
How- develop methodswhichwill lead to
and fast,"she told Cristo- ever,this would invade the privacy data whichare moreprecise,objective,
married,
getting
bal. Well, it was arrangedand we were whichis suchan essentialpart of my meaningful,
and replicable.I am symAnd to thisdaythatmanhas been relationship
married.
parinformant,
to all questions
with
an
pathetic,
therefore,
thecrossI bear.
session. and suggestions
whichare intendedto
ticularlyduringthe recording
comments And who would vouch for the improvethe qualityof anthropologiMost of the constructive
none of
and criticismin thesereviewscan be objectivityof the person observing cal research.Unfortunately,
have comeup withany
groupedunder two major headings: me? In short,I see no finalsolution thereviewers
for the im(1) commentson methods,and (2) to some of the questionsthat have specificrecommendations
of intensive
familystudies,
on the conceptof the sub- been raised.However,I am grateful provement
comments
re- perhapsbecauseof theirlack of excultureof poverty.Seven of the six- to Ackermanfor his thoughtful
teen reviewers (Ackerman, Baric, view and for his kindnessin sug- periencewiththiskindof work.
I am glad thatEric Wolf realized
Beattie,Belshaw,Opler,Stavenhagen, gestingthatmy own approachoffers
and Willmott)askedformoredata on a freshhope for effectiveinterdis- that my approach to familystudies
one at all
themethodsI haveusedin mystudies. ciplinarycollaborationbetweenour is not an impressionistic
welcome and that I have been using hard
I wouldcertainly
They want to knowmoreabout how disciplines.
methodsin the study of subjective
I establishrapport,the selectionof such collaboration.
I want to thankDr. Coles for his data, i.e., life histories.I have done
the
theproblemof typicality,
families,
questionsasked, the principlesem- generousappraisal of my work and my best to achievea balanced view
ployed in my selection,condensing foradoptingmeintohis "tribe."Coles of the lives of my subjectsby using
is a remarkablechild psychologist a broad and eclecticapproachwhich
and editingof thetapes,etc.
I explainedmy methodsof work who leaveshis officeand his clinicto gives equal attentionto ecological,
to my studychildrenin theirnaturalmilieu social, economic,religious,psychoin the various introductions
I said aboutas much -in theirhomesand in theirschools. logical,moral,and historicalfactors.
books.Certainly,
on my field methodsas is usually His new book, Children of Crisis Stavenhagen'ssuggestionthat my
to more tradi- (New York: Little,Brown,1967), is work emphasizessexual materialsis
said in introductions
tional ethnographicmonographs.It an unusuallysensitiveand inspiring belied by Pedro Martinez,whichhas
verylittleon sex becauseit is not a
now appearsthatI didn'tsay enough. humandocument.
Some of the criticswho are most subject highland Mexican peasants
It is almostas if my colleagueswere
askingfor a tool kit so that theyor concernedabout the methodsI have like to discuss.I used the same techtheirgraduatestudentsmightgo out used are apparentlyfavorablyim- niques,asked the same kind of quesand do theirown familystudies.I pressedby the final results.If the tions, and had the same biases in
but I portraitswhich I have presentedon doing Pedro Martinez(Stavenhagen's
am flatteredby this intention,
am afraidit would take a fulllength the lives of my Mexican and Puerto favorite)as in the otherbooks. The
betweenthesebooksreflect
to answerall thequestions Rican families are convincingto differences
monograph
in thesecoun- theobjectivedifferences
in the nature
raised. Some of the reviewershave readerswithexperience
analysisof the tries,then why so much fuss about of the familiesstudied.For example,
also asked forfurther
data. I agree.Thereis roomformuch the methods?Perhaps Ackermanis for some of the womenin the Rios
to someof my col- family,whose occupation involved
moreanalysisthan I have had time rightin referring
Some of leagues as "compulsivemethodolo- sex, talkingabout it was like shopto do in my introductions.
talkand cameeasily.
the analysiswill appear in my forth- gists."
In this connection,I mightpoint
Stavenhagen'sconjecturethat difcomingbook, A Study of Slum Culture:Backgrounds
forLa Vida (New out that most Mexican and Puerto ferentinvestigators
studyingthe same
York: Random House, 1968). I am Rican criticshave not challengedthe familymightcome up with different
also preparingan article on "Religion
in the Culture of Poverty" based on
the materialsin my last fourbooks.
Dr. Ackerman suggeststhat in the
498
essential truth of the data in my
books. The only question that has
been raised has concerned the advisability of publishingsuch data because
resultsis one of those easy generalizations which don't get us very far. His
analogy with my own restudy of
Tepoztlan is misleading and superCURRENT
ANTHROPOLOGY
Lewis: CHILDREN OF SANCHEZ, PEDRO MARTINEZ, LAVIDA
ficial. In the study of an ancient
villagewitha historyof over 2,000
are no doubt
yearsand witha populationof over moneyeconomyis not incompatible sistenceof thesubculture
of themodel. the pressuresthat the largersociety
5,000 people, thereis much greater withmyown conception
that is, the
thatmosto,fthe traits exertsover its members,
for variationin results Her statement
opportunity
thanin thestudyof an individuallife are foundin the cityof Kampala in structureof the larger class society
historyor of a single family.In- Uganda,in spiteof theunilinearkin- itself."However,thisis not the only
to Kam- reason.The subculture
developsnmechone of the majorexplana- ship systemof the migrants
cidentally,
tions for the differencesbetween pala, suggeststo me that the kinship anismswhich tend to perpetuateit,
studyand myown was my systemis in itselfin the processof especiallybecauseof whathappensto
Redfield's
greaterinterestand emphasisupon rapid change and no longer serves the world view, aspirations,and
In any characterof the childrenwho grow
economics(not sex!), quantification, some of its earlierfunctions.
and the studyof rangeof variation. case, I found her discussionvery up in it. For this reason,improved
were helpful.
If threeseparateinvestigators
economicopportunities,
thoughabsoto ask Pedro Martinezthe kinds of
to Aoyagiforhis lutely essentialand of the highest
I am also grateful
to basically
remarkson possible dif- priority,
are notsufficient
questionswhich I normallyask my interesting
informants:"Tell me about your ferences
betweenlower-classJapanese alter or eliminatethe subcultureof
or "Did you go to and my Mexican and Puerto Rican poverty.Moreover,it is a process
earliestmemories,"
school?How many years? Tell me familiesin regard to sexual mores. which will take more than a single
aboutyourfirstday in school,"etc., Unfortunately,
thereare no intensive generation,even under the best of
in the studiesof Japaneselow-incomeurban circumstances,
including a socialist
I doubt that the differences
withmy revolution.
of the ques- slumfamiliesforcomparison
theoreticalorientations
Stavenhagen misunderstandsme
alter the own data. However, judging from
tionerswould significantly
natureof the responsesor the basic someJapanesemoviesI have seen(for completelywhenhe writes,"[Lewis]
lifeas he sees example,Ant Woman),I suspectthere seems to be saying: 'being poor is
factsof theinformant's
than ap- terrible,but having a culture of
them.In fact, Stavenhagencontra- may be greatersimilarities
povertyis not so bad'." On the condicts himself.On the one hand he pear on the surface.
Some of the reviewersseem to trary,I am sayingthatit is easierto
claimsI did not givea balancedview
of eliminatepovertythanthe cultureof
the subculture
of the families(presumablybecause have misunderstood
thatthe
my approach stresses intra-familypovertymodeland to have failedto poverty.I am also suggesting
caste-ridden
of thedistinction poor in a pre-capitalistic
dynamics),but on the otherhand he grasptheimportance
says that-my data are so full and betweenpovertyand the subculture societylike India had some advanthattheycan readilybe of poverty.In makingthisdistinction tagesovermodernurbanslum-dwellers
wide-ranging
reorganizedunderthe headingsof a I have tried to documenta broader becausethe people were organizedin
monograph. generalization;namely,that it is a castesand pancbayatsand thisorganitraditionalethnographic
I am afraid that a good deal of serious mistake to lump all poor zation gave themsomesenseof idenStavenhagen'sratherpompous criti- people together,because the causes, tity and some strengthand power.
of^ PerhapsGhandihad the urbanslums
cism reflectshis own personal bias the meaning,and the consequences
in different of the West in mindwhen he wrote
against psychologicalapproaches.I povertyvaryconsiderably
say thisadvisedlybecausehe was once socioculturalcontexts.There is noth- that the caste systemwas one of the
of mankind.Simiin Mexico. Un- ing in the concept which puts the greatestinventions
my student-assistant
he showed no aptitude onus of povertyon the characterof larly, I have argued that the poor
fortunately,
forfamilystudiesor, indeed,forany- the poor. Nor does the conceptin Jews of EasternEurope, with their
thatinvolvedthestudyof inter- any way play down the exploitation strongtraditionof literacyand comthing.
were betteroff
personalrelationsand thepsychology and neglect sufferedby the poor. munityorganization,
of peoples.
Indeed, the subcultureof povertyis than people with the culture of
I am glad to learnthatso manyof partof thelargercultureof capitalism poverty.On the otherhand,I would
the reviewersfound my conceptual whose social and economic system arguethatpeople withthe cultureof
model of a subcultureof poverty channelswealthinto the hands of a poverty,with their strongsense of
Aerni'ssugges- relativelysmall group and thereby resignationand fatalism, are less
usefuland promising.
tion that many of the traitsof the makesfor the growthof sharp class driven and less anxious than the
strivinglower middleclass, who are
of povertymustbe seenas distinctions.
subculture
the resultof the processof transition I would agree with Stavenhagen still tryingto make it in the face of
from a subsistenceeconomy to a that "the main reasonsfor the per- the greatestodds.
Cited
References
FIRTH, RAYMOND. 1936. We, the Tikopia.
[LB*]
London: Allen & Unwin.
FRIED, J. 1959. "Acculturationand mental
health among Indian migrantsin Peru,"
CAROLINA M. 1962. Child of the
DE JESUJS,
in Culture and mental health. Edited by
dark (The diary of Carolina Maria De
M. K. Opler. New York: Macmillan.
Jest's). Translated from the Portuguese
[MKO*]
by David St. Clair. New York: E. P.
KROEBER, A. L. 1952. "Earth-Tongue
[MKO*]
Dutton.
Mohave," in The nature of culture.
DORE, R. P., and K. AoYAGI. 1962. The
Chicago: Universityof Chicago Press.
Buraku minorityin urban Japan. Paper
KROEBER, A. L., and C. KLUCKHOHN. 1952.
read at the Fifth World Congress of
Culture: A critical review of concepts
Sociology,Washington, D.C., September
and definitions. Cambridge: Harvard
[KA*]
2-8, 1962.
[RS*]
UniversityPress.
FERNANDEZ MENDEz, EUGENIO. 1956. Por- LEWIS, OSCAR. 1952. "Dynamics of culture
patterns-Summary,"in Problems in sotrait of a society. San Juan: University
cial psychology: An interdisciplinary
[EFM*]
of Puerto Rico Press.
Vol. 8 . No. 5 . December 1967
itnquiry.Edited by J. E. Hulett, Jr.,and
Ross Stagner, pp. 452-75. Urbana:
Universityof Illinois Press.
1953a. "Controlsand experimentsin
anthropological fieldwork," in Anthropology today. Edited by A. L. Kioeber,
pp. 452-75. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press.
1953b. Tepoztlan restudied: A critique of the folk-urbanconceptualization
of social change. Rural Sociology 18:
12 1-36.
1955. "Comparisons in cultural
anthropology,"in Yearbook of anthropology. Edited by William L. Thomas
with the assistance of Jean S. Stewart,
pp. 259-92. New York: Wenner-Gren
499
Puerto Rican men," in Cli?nicalstudies
Foundation for Anthropological Rein cultureconflict.Edited by G. Seward.
search.
1959. Five families. New York:
New York: Ronald Press. (Reprinted in
--.
Culture aind social psychiatry,by M. K.
Basic Books.
Opler, New York: AthertonPress,1967).
--. 1960-61. Some of my best friends
[MKO*]
are peasants. Humain Organiization19:
1958b. "Epidemiological studies of
179-80.
mental illness: Methods and scope of the
--. 1965. "Further observationson the
Midtown Study in New York," in Symfolk-urbancontinuum and urbanization
posium on preventiveand social psychiawith special referenceto Mexico City,"
try. Washington: Walter Reed Army
in The studyof urbainization.Edited by
Instituteof Research.
Philip M. Hauser and Leo F. Schnore,
[MKO*]
pp. 491-503. New York: John Wiley.
PATCH, R. W. 1961. Life in a calleijdn.A
studyof urban disorganization.American
MALINOWSKI, B. 1922. Argonauts of the
UniversitiesField Staff Reports,Vol. 8,
westernPacific. London: Routledge and
no. 6.
Kegan Paul.
[MKO*]
REDFIELD, ROBERT. 1930. Tepoztlin, a
MARRIS, PETER. 1961. Family and social
Mexicain village. Chicago: Universityof
change in an Africain city. London:
Chicago Press.
Routledge and Kegan Paul.
[RS*]
[PW*]
MINTZ, SIDNEY. 1960. Worker in the ca1ne. ROGLER, L. H., and A. B. HOLLINGSHEAD.
New Haven: Yale UniversityPress.
1965. Trapped: Families and schizo[JPF*]
phrenia. New York: John Wiley.
OPLER, M. K. 1958a. "Dilemmas of two
[MKO*]
500
ROHRER, J. H., and M.*S. EDMONSON.
1960.
The eighth generation. New York:
Harper.
[MKO*]
STAVENHAGEN,RODOLFO. 1966. Seven erro-
neous theses about Latin America. New
UniversityThought 4(4):25-37.
[RS*]
STEWARD,JULIAN,et al. 1956. The people
of Puerto Rico: A social anthropological
study. Urbana: University of Illinois
Press.
[EFM, MKO*]
TORRES-RIoSECO,
ARTURO.
"The
1959.
familyin Latin America,"in The family:
Its functionaind destiny.Edited by Ruth
Nanda Anshen. New York: Harper.
[NWA*]
WILLMOTT, PETER. 1963. The evolution
of a community.London: Routledge and
[PW*]
Kegan Paul.
YOUNG, MICHAEL, and PETER WILLMOTT.
1957. Family and kinship in East London. London: Routledgeand Kegan Paul.
[PW*]
CURRENT
ANTHROPOLOGY