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Chapter 12

Chapter 12. Social Stratification. What We Will Learn. To what extent do the societies of the world vary in terms of the equitable distribution of power, prestige, and wealth? How do class systems differ from caste systems?

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Chapter 12

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  1. Chapter 12 Social Stratification

  2. What We Will Learn • To what extent do the societies of the world vary in terms of the equitable distribution of power, prestige, and wealth? • How do class systems differ from caste systems? • What are the different ways of interpreting systems of social stratification?

  3. Social Inequality • Max Weber’s criteria for measuring social inequality: • Wealth - the extent to which they have accumulated economic resources • Power - the ability to achieve one’s goals and objectives even against the will of others • Prestige- social esteem, respect or admiration that a society confers on people

  4. Wealth • With a net worth of over $50 billion in October 2006, Microsoft’s Bill Gates represents the upper level of wealth in the United States and the world.

  5. Three Types of Societies • Based on levels of social inequality: • Egalitarian - no individual or group has appreciably more wealth, power, or prestige than any other. • Rank - unequal access to prestige or status but not unequal access to wealth or power. • Stratified societies - considerable inequality in all forms of social rewards (power,wealth, and prestige).

  6. Egalitarian Societies • No individual or group has more wealth, power, or prestige than any other. • Everyone, depending on skill level, has equal access to positions of esteem and respect. • Found most readily among geographically mobile food collectors • Ju/’hoansi of the Kalahari region • Inuit • Hadza of Tanzania

  7. Egalitarian Societies • Small-scale foraging societies, such as the Hadza of Tanzania, tend to be egalitarian.

  8. Rank Societies • Unequal access to prestige but not to wealth or power. • Fixed number of high-status positions, which only certain individuals can occupy. • Primogeniture is the exclusive right of the eldest usually the son) to inherit his father’s estate. • Found most prominently in Oceania and among Native Americans of the Northwest.

  9. Stratified Societies • Considerable inequality in power, wealth, and prestige. • As societies become more specialized, the system of social stratification becomes more complex.

  10. Stratified Societies • In stratified societies, different groups have different levels of power, prestige, and wealth. In the United States over the past three decades, the gap between those at the bottom and those at the top has widened.

  11. Status • Achieved status • The status an individual acquires during the course of her or his lifetime. • Ascribed status • The status a person has by virtue of birth.

  12. Class Versus Caste • In class systems an individual can change his or her social position dramatically within a lifetime. • Caste societies have no social mobility, membership in a caste is determined by birth and lasts throughout one’s lifetime.

  13. Question • At the low end of the inequality continuum are _______ societies, which maintain a high level of equality among the group's members. • caste • egalitarian • ranked • stratified

  14. Answer: b • At the low end of the inequality continuum are egalitarian societies, which maintain a high level of equality among the group's members.

  15. Question • ______ societies have unequal access to prestige, status, wealth, and power. • Egalitarian • Stratified • State • Rank

  16. Answer: b • Stratified societies have unequal access to prestige, status, wealth, and power.

  17. Question • In _______ societies, membership is determined at birth, and social mobility is not possible. • caste • stratified • egalitarian • rank

  18. Answer: a • In caste societies, membership is determined at birth, and social mobility is not possible.

  19. U.S. Class Structure

  20. U.S. Class Structure

  21. U.S.Class Structure: Katrina • Many Katrina victims waited for days at the New Orleans Superdome for government help because they didn’t have a Saab to drive to a Marriott Hotel further inland.

  22. U.S.Class Structure: Donald Trump • “You’re fired!” The capitalist class has considerable power over jobs held by the rest of society.

  23. Hindu Caste Society • Social boundaries are strictly maintained by caste endogamy and notions of ritual purity and pollution. • Caste system has persisted for 2,000 years and enables the upper castes to maintain a monopoly on wealth, status, and power. • Varnas are caste groups in Hindu India that are associated with certain occupations.

  24. Hindu Caste Society • Dalit is the politically correct term for those formerly called the Untouchables in India. • Jati are local subcastes found in Hindu India. • Sanskritization is a form of upward social mobility found in contemporary India whereby people born into lower castes can achieve higher status by taking on some of the behaviors and practices of the highest (Brahmin) caste.

  25. Hindu Caste Society • The Dalits in India engage in only the lowest-status jobs.

  26. Race • Race - classification based on physical traits. • Ethnicity - classification based on cultural characteristics. • There are no pure races. • Different populations have been interbreeding for thousands of years, resulting in a continuum of human physical types.

  27. Ethnic Stratification • A Gypsy (Roma) woman and children beg outside a church in Bratislava, Slovakia.

  28. Race And Ethnicity In The United States • If Tony Manero, played by John Travolta in the 1977 film Saturday Night Fever, was living in Brooklyn today, he would be sharing his Italian-American neighborhood with large numbers of Chinese, Russians, and Ukrainians.

  29. Race And Ethnicity In The United States • Tiger Woods, one of the greatest golfers of all time, is the son of an Asian-American mother and an African-American father. What race is he?

  30. Forms of Intergroup Relations • Pluralism: two or more groups live in harmony and retain their own heritage, pride, and identity. • Assimilation: a racial or ethnic minority is absorbed into the wider society. • Legal protection of minorities: the government steps in to legally protect the minority group.

  31. Forms of Intergroup Relations • Population transfer: physical removal of a minority group to another location. • Long-term subjugation: political, economic and social repression for indefinite periods of time. • Genocide: mass annihilation of groups of people.

  32. Social Stratification: Theories • Functionalist • Class systems contribute to the well-being of a society by encouraging constructive endeavor. • Conflict • Stratification systems exist because the upper classes strive to maintain a superior position at the expense of the lower classes.

  33. Bourgeoisie Karl Marx’s term referring to the middle class (those who own the means of production). Proletariat The term used in conflict theories of social stratification to describe the working class who exchange their labor for wages. Conflict Theory

  34. Global Stratification • The average income of people in the United States is roughly 376 times as much as this Ethiopian farmer.

  35. Ten Richest Nations Per Capital GNI (2004)

  36. Ten Poorest Nations Per Capital GNI (2004)

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