ABSTRACT
Powerlessness is reflected in the ease with which rural elites act as a net to intercept benefits intended for the poor, in the way the poor are robbed and cheated, and in the inability of poorer people to bargain, especially women, and those who are physically weak, disabled or destitute. Altruism and generosity are also found, but reciprocal relations and traditional supports for the poor are rarer and weaker than in the past. The American ideology of success, dominant until the Great Depression of the 1930s, was another convenient belief for the better off: it regarded wealth as a reward for Puritan virtues such as honesty, industry, sobriety, self-discipline, neatness, cleanliness and punctuality, and saw poverty as the converse. To get beyond stereotypes and counter-stereotypes requires comparative analysis of the micro-detail of rural poverty. Most poverty, quite simply, goes unseen; and where perceived, is only seen in one or a few dimensions.
