SOCIAL STRATIFICATIONUNIT 3

WHAT I’M LEARNING TODAY

WILT:

• Understand what social stratification is and where it originated from

• Explore the systems of social stratification

• Create a research plan based on racial inequality

WHAT IS SOCIAL STRATIFICATION?

• Is inequality inevitable or is it socially constructed? Has it existed throughout human history? How has it changed over time?

• Social stratification is structured systems of inequality that rank people according to a hierarchy

• These hierarchies may be based on class, gender, ethnicity and age

STRATIFIED SOCIETIES

• In a stratified society, there is an unequal distribution of rewards, or of things that are perceived as valuable, among members of the society

• A person’s experiences and opportunities are defined by the social category to which they belong

ORIGINS OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION

• Anthropologists believe this started 5000 years ago in hunting and gathering societies

• The primary bases of stratification are age and sex

• Adults hold power over children and men dominate women

• With the emergence of the industrial age, there became a social stratification with classes as well (i.e. upper, middle and lower class)

SYSTEMS OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION

• Sociologists often use two opposing standards to describe social stratification:

• Closed Systems

• Open Systems -

CLOSED SYSTEMS

• Allow for very little change in social position

• The boundaries between levels are rigid and people’s positions are set by ascribed status (a social position assigned to a person without regard for his or his talents)

• Examples include slavery

OPEN SYSTEMS

• Allow for flexibility and may be influenced (positively or negatively) by achieved status (a social position attained by a person largely through his or her own effort)

• Have social mobility - upward or downward

• Intergenerational mobility is the social movement of individuals within their own lifetime

• Example would be the class system

SLAVERY

• Slavery is the most extreme form of social stratification for individuals and groups

• It is a closed system - people are owned by others and are treated like property

• Slavery originated with the development of agriculture and the division of labour

• The specialization of tasks intensified social inequality between labourers and their employees - separating people into different hierarchies (i.e., Principal/VP, Administration, Teachers, Custodians, etc.)

SLAVERY

• The earliest reference to slavery dates back to 2100BCE and it has been identified all over the world (i.e., Ancient Egypt, Roman Empire, etc.)

• People were enslaved to pay off debts, punishment for a crime or prisoner of war

• Slavery still exists today - human trafficking, fired labour, sex trafficking, etc.

• Estimated between 12 to 27 million people are caught in some form of slavery despite laws

• 3 out of 4 are female and half of those are children

CASTE SYSTEMS

• A caste system is a closed system of social stratification where a person’s permanent social status is determined at birth

OccupationTraditional caste groups are linked to occupation,

generations of a family perform the same type of work

Marriage People within a caste system are allowed to marry only within their own ethnic or social group

Social LifeCaste systems guide every day life so that pole remain in

the company of their own kind

Belief Systems Cultural and religious beliefs and values sustain and uphold caste systems

CASTE SYSTEMS• India and South Africa are examples of societies that were

defined by caste

• In India, caste determines the kind of work someone can do and who a person can marry

• Before, marriage outside your own caste was illegal

• Hindu traditions dictated that a “pure” person of a higher caste would be “polluted” by contact with someone in a lower caste

• South Africa, the caste system is based on racial classification (apartheid)

• White people hold almost all the desirable jobs, whereas black people hold manual labourers and servants

CLASS SYSTEMS

• Class systems are more open than slavery or caste systems

• A type of stratification based on the ownership and control of resources and the type of work people do

• A person who gains education and skills can move from one level of society to another

• Horizontal mobility occurs when people experience a gain or loss in positive that does not produce a change in their class structure

• Movement up or down the class structure with a change in income is vertical mobility