The paper gives a historical account of the genesis of marginal social
position explanations in the USA, with special emphasis on the
characteristics, related to the generating of cultural factors in
explanation. In this light, the two fundamental and interrelated concepts are
being indentified - the culture of poverty and the underclass, whose
conceptual genesis, in a causal manner, varies between structural and
cultural grounding. Due the translation of perceived minority behavioural
patterns into the dimensions used for defining the marginal social position,
conceptual validity of the underclass has been heavily disputed. At the same
time, dilemmas created by the implementation of cultural factors constructed
in that way open up broader issues of the relationship between culture and
structure, lines of determination and the possibility of a consistent
explanation of marginal social position.