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Social Differentiation and Social Change: From Preindustrial to Industrial Societies
History of Civilization = History of Stratification
Materialist vs. Ideological Conceptions of History
Material Conditions
What can also be called the material infrastructure consists of the basic raw materials and social forms pertinent to human survival and adaptation. A society’s material infrastructure is its most basic component in the sense that without it, physical survival is literally impossible (or highly improbable).
Consists of:
Technology, Economy, Ecology, Demography
Materialist vs. Ideological Conceptions of History
Ideological Conditions
Involves the patterned ways in which the members of a society think, conceptualize, evaluate, and feel, as opposed to what they actually do. It refers to thought, ideas, etc.
It has five components: General Ideology, Religion, Science, Art, and Literature
Materialist vs. Ideological Conceptions of History
Relationship between material and ideological structures:
The material conditions of society is what drives sociocultural phenomena, e.g. social change and stratification.
Ideas are important, but the types and kinds of ideas people have are rooted in the material conditions.
Mode of production = A society’s combined level of technological development combined with the overall organization of its economy, including the division of labor.
How does social change occur? Societies change by resolving their “internal contradictions.”
Mode of Production
Type of Society Means Form of Ownership
Degree of Inequality
1. Primitive Communism
H/G Collective Low
2. Ancient Society Agriculture Private High
3. Feudalism Agriculture Private High
4. Capitalism Industrial Private High
5. Socialism Industrial Collective Low
Marx and Social Change
Lenski’s (1966) Theory of Stratification: ECONOMIC SURPLUS
Scarce and valued goods are distributed according to need and power.
In subsistence-only conditions, need prevails. In surplus conditions, power prevails.
Power is exercised in many ways and according to the abilities of the power-holders. Violent force is the most effective and dominant form.
When societies began to produce an economic surplus, i.e. the economic goods above and beyond subsistence level, stratification began.
The origins can be traced to the beginnings of larger scale social systems above hunter gatherer, and can be directly observable in agrarian societies.
Types of SocietiesHunter-Gatherer
Pastoralists Horticulturalists Agrarian
Spatial Territory
Nomadic XSemi-Nomadic XNomadic with Crop Rotation X
Non-Nomadic X
Types of SocietiesHunter-Gatherer
Pastoralists Horticulturalists Agrarian
Size of Community
12 – 100 X100 – 300 X X300 + X
Types of SocietiesHunter-Gatherer
Pastoralists Horticulturalists Agrarian
Political Organization
Communal X
Specialized Part-Time Politicians
X (varies)
X X
Specialized Full-Time Politicians
X (varies) X
Male Dominance of…
X X X X
Types of SocietiesHunter-Gatherer
Pastoralists Horticulturalists Agrarian
Economic Surplus Level (see Lenski 1966)
None X
Low X
Moderate X
High X (early)
Very High X (late)
Types of SocietiesHunter-Gatherer
Pastoralists Horticulturalists Agrarian
Type of Stratification System
Primitive Communal X
Slavery X
Caste X
Empire X
Transition to Stratification
Neolithic revolution = a name for the transition from hunter gatherer societies to the beginnings of horticultural and agricultural societies. Not so much a revolution as a slow, gradual change.
Consequences of the Neolithic Revolution that led to social stratification
Dramatic population increase
Development of complex human organizations, including separate institutions for political,
economic, military, and religion
Development of slavery
Decline in the status of women
Agrarian Empires
Early Middle Late
Mesopotamia Islamic Spain
Babylonia Maya Portugal
China Aztec England
Egypt France
Nubia Ottoman
Greece
First Appeared…
Rome
Transition to Industrialization
-- Fall of feudalism
-- Rise of the merchant class
-- Legitimation of stratification system changed from of “tradition” of hereditary nobility and religious authority to economic advantage.