The Many Meanings of PovertyThis book analyzes the diverse understandings of poverty in a multiracial colonial society, eighteenth century Quito. It shows that in a colonial world both a pauper and a landowner could lay claim to assistance as the "deserving poor" while the vast majority of the impoverished Andean population did not share the same avenues of poor relief. The Many Meanings of Poverty asks how colonialism shaped arguments about povertysuch as the categories of