SOCIAL STRATIFICATION

Social Stratification

Is a sociological term for the hierarchical arrangement of social classes, castes, and strata within a society.While these hierarchies are not universal to all societies, they are the norm among state-level cultures.Is universal, every known society is divided in some way.In other words, every known society has people “at the top”(people with more power) and people “ at the bottom” (people with less power).

Is a system in which groups of people are divided into layers according to their relative power, property and prestige. It is important to emphasize that social stratification does not refer to individuals. It is a way of ranking large groups of people into a hierarchy according to their relative privileges.

Variation in Degree of Social Inequality

Types of Advantages:

Wealth or Economic Resources- consists of property and income.

Power- is the ability to carry out your will despite resistance and is the result of the convergence of like-minded individuals who share ideologies and values and can therefore exert disproportionate amounts of power, far more than ordinary individuals.

Wealth- brings power and extreme power.

Prestige (respect or regard)- meaning someone or some group is accorded with particular respect or honor.

Types of Society

Egalitarian- contains no social groups with greater or lesser access to economic resources, power or prestige.

Rank- does not have very unequal access to economic resources or to power but they do contain social groups with unequal access to prestige.

Class- has unequal access to all three advantages.

EGALITARIAN SOCIETY

Egalitarian Societies contain no special groups with greater or lesser access to economic resources, power or prestige.

Egalitarian does not mean that all people within such societies are the same. There will always be differences among individuals in age and gender and such abilities or traits as hunting skill, perception, health, creativity, physical prowess, attractiveness and intelligence.Egalitarian societies can be found not only among forager such as !Kung, Mbuti, Australian aborigines, Inuit and Ache, but also among horticulturalists and pastoralists.

RANK SOCIETY

Is one that ranks individuals in terms of their genealogical distance from the chief.

Closer relatives of the chief have higher rank or social status than more distant ones.

When individuals and groups rank about equally, competition for positions of leadership may occur.

CLASS SOCIETY

There is unequal access to prestige.

Class societies are characterized by groups of people that have substantially greater or lesser access to economic resources and power.

Fully stratified or class societies range from somewhat open to virtually closed class or caste systems.

Open Class Systems

Class- is a category of persons who all have about the same opportunity to obtain economic resources, power and prestige.

We call class systems open if there is some possibility of moving from one class to another.

The social status or prestige of a family is generally correlated with the occupation and wealth of the head of the family.

CASTE SYSTEM

Is a ranked group in which membership is determined at birth and marriage and is restricted limited to members of one’s own caste.

Why did social stratification develop?

On the basis of his study of polynesian societies, Marshall Sahlins suggested that an increase in agricultural productivity results in social stratification.Lenski’s theory of the causes of stratification is similar to Sahlins’s original idea.Lenski, too, argued that production of a surplus is the stimulus in the development of stratification, but he focused primarily on the conflict that arises over control of that surplus.

Future research by archaeologists, sociologists, historians and anthropologists should provide more understanding of the emergence of social stratification in human societies, how and why it may vary in degree.