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?

• What are the different ways of interpreting systems of social stratification?

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

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.

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).

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

Egalitarian Societies

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

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.

Stratified Societies

• Considerable inequality in power, wealth, and prestige.

• As societies become more specialized, the system of social stratification becomes more complex.

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.

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.

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.

Question

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

a) casteb) egalitarianc) rankedd) stratified

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.

Question

• ______ societies have unequal access to prestige, status, wealth, and power.

a) Egalitarian

b) Stratified

c) State

d) Rank

Answer: b

• Stratified societies have unequal access to prestige, status, wealth, and power.

Question

• In _______ societies, membership is determined at birth, and social mobility is not possible.

a) caste

b) stratified

c) egalitarian

d) rank

Answer: a

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

U.S. Class Structure

Class Income Education Occupation %

Capitalist $1,000,000Prestige

universitiesCEOs,

investors, heirs1

Upper middle

$100,000+Top colleges /postgraduate

Upper managers,

professionals 14

Middle $55,000High school

/some college

Lower managers,

teachers, civil servants

30

U.S. Class Structure

Class Income Education Occupation %

Working $35,000 High schoolClerical, sales,

factory30

Working poor

$22,000Some high

schoolService, laborers

13

Underclass$10,000 or

lessSome high

schoolUnemployed 12

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.

U.S.Class Structure: Donald Trump

• “You’re fired!” The capitalist class has considerable power over jobs held by the rest of society.

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.

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.

Hindu Caste Society

• The Dalits in India engage in only the lowest-status jobs.

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.

Ethnic Stratification

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

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.

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?

Forms of Intergroup Relations

1. Pluralism: two or more groups live in harmony and retain their own heritage, pride, and identity.

2. Assimilation: a racial or ethnic minority is absorbed into the wider society.

3. Legal protection of minorities: the government steps in to legally protect the minority group.

Forms of Intergroup Relations

4. Population transfer: physical removal of a minority group to another location.

5. Long-term subjugation: political, economic and social repression for indefinite periods of time.

6. Genocide: mass annihilation of groups of people.

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.

Conflict Theory

• 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.

Global Stratification

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

Ten Richest Nations Per Capital GNI (2004)

Luxembourg $56,380

Norway $51,810

Switzerland $49,600

Bermuda estimated

United States $41,400

Denmark $40,750

Liechtenstein estimated

Iceland $37,920

Sweden $35,840

Japan $37,050

Ten Poorest Nations Per Capital GNI (2004)

Niger $210

Rwanda $210

Sierra Leone $210

Eritrea $190

Guinea Bissau $160

Malawi $160

Liberia $120

Congo Democratic Republic $110

Ethiopia $110

Burundi $90