Oscar Lewis

Oscar Lewis, born Lefkowitz was an American anthropologist. He is best known for his vivid depictions of the lives of slum dwellers and his argument that a cross-generational culture of poverty transcends national boundaries. Lewis contended that the cultural similarities occurred because they were "common adaptations to common problems" and that "the culture of poverty is both an adaptation and a reaction of the poor classes to their marginal position in a class-stratified, highly individualistic, capitalistic society." He won the 1967 U.S. National Book Award in Science, Philosophy and Religion for La vida: a Puerto Rican family in the culture of poverty--San Juan and New York.

25 December 1914

Born on the same birth date (25 December 1914): James Fletcher Jnr

Born on the same birth day (25 December): Armin van Buuren • Ceyhun Gülselam • Charles Finger • Christian Holst • Conrad Hilton • Desireless • Dorothy Wordsworth • Francesco Marinoni • Jacqui McShee • Konstantin Kinchev • Mary Rose Tuitt • Mike Pringle (politician) • Nawaz Sharif • Nicolas Godin • René Girard • Samuel Berger (boxer) • Zaib-un-Nissa Hamidullah

Born in the same month (December 1914): Adolph Green • Cyril Washbrook • Frances Reid • Hans Hellmut Kirst • Mary Logan Reddick • Richard Widmark