Cultural Dimensions of Rural Poverty in Indonesia A Methodical Approach Focussing on Education and Origin

The investigation of relative poverty in rural areas of developing countries is dominated by an economic point of view. This paper presents a methodical step for weighting cultural factors of influence. As empirical data basis a household census of a village in rural Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, was conducted. For the determination of poverty we apply to a measurement tool already tested by Zeller et al. (2006). As variables, which represent the cultural factors exemplarily, we choose education and origin. We show that the level of education and the time of migration affect the poverty distribution of the village significantly. Ethnical affiliation, in contrast, plays only a subordinated role. Furthermore, we conclude that results of a quantitative approach towards cultural dimensions needs to be accompanied by qualitative in-depth research as otherwise crucial questions about the how and why of quantitative causal relations cannot be answered.