Chapter 22

Grouping by Gender, Age, Common Interest and Class

Chapter Preview

What Principles Do People Use to Organize Societies?

What Is Age Grading? What Are Common- Interest

Associations? What Is Social Stratification?

Grouping by Gender

All societies will have certain tasks that pertain to the sexes as mentioned in previous chapters.

However, how the sexes are viewed may vary depending on the tribe. For example, the Native American Iroquois traditionally felt that women's work were somewhat less prestigious than that of a man, but they would acknowledge that women are the sustainers of life.

Grouping by Age

Similar to grouping by gender is grouping by age.

An age grade is an organized category of people based on age; every individual passes through a series of such categories over his or her lifetime.

An age set is a formally established group of people born during a certain time span who move through the series of age grade categories together.

Age Grouping: Tiriki

The Tiriki of Kenya exemplify the idea of age grades and sets.

They have seven named age sets that are open for membership but only once the first has been completed.

Each age set embraces a 15-year span and so 15x7 sets equals 105 years of the males life.

The Tiriki only have four age grades.

Tiriki’s Age Grades

First: “Warrior” Second: “Elder warrior” Third: “Judicial Elders” Fourth: “Ritual Elders”

Common-interest Associations

Common-interest associations result from an act of joining based on sharing particular activities, objectives, values, or beliefs.

Result of social change and urbanization. Provide companionship and other functions such

as learning a new language to safe working conditions.

Not restricted to modern societies, also found in traditional societies.

Membership may range from voluntary to legally compulsory.

Common-Interest Associations These can range in variety. Examples

include; street gangs, militia, sport clubs, churches, and political parties.

In some areas it is found that women have not developed these associations to the complexity as men due to the patriarchal nature of their culture.

Therefore, social scientists used to view women’s associations as less developed than men’s, although this is no longer true.

Common-interest Associations in the Postindustrial Society In North America participation in common-

interest groups has declined. People are less likely to socialize in a face

to face manner as they might have in the past.

Online associations have grown in popularity.

What, if any, significant results could occur from this change?

Groupings in Society

Generally two main types of grouping individuals within a society either equally or unequally.

Stratified society- divided into categories of people who do not share equally in resources, influence, or prestige.

Egalitarian society- societies in which everyone has about equal rank, access to, and power over basic resources. Less frequently found.

Types of Social Stratification

Social class- a category of individuals in a stratified society who enjoy equal or nearly equal prestige according to the system of evaluation.

These may be based on some of all of the following:GenderAgeSocial classCaste

Caste Systems

In societies which contain a caste system or a social class in which membership is determined by birth and fixed for life.

Children automatically belong to their parents’ caste. They may have little to no opportunity to escape their parents caste system.

They may however move through castes via reincarnation.

Stratification In the United States

70% of wealth is in the hands of 10% of the population.

These statistics are from 2000, what do you think they might look like today?

Manifesting a Social Class

There are several ways that a social class can manifest. The first is by verbal evaluation-what people say about other people in their society.

Secondly through patterns of association- who interacts with whom, how, and in what context.

The third is by symbolic indicators- certain activities or professions are indicative of class.

Social Mobility

If a society is stratified it might be possible to have some flexibility within the ranks.

Open-class systems are those with the easiest mobility.

Degree of mobility is related to education or type of family organization that prevails in a society.

Closed-class systems such as castes generally offer little to no mobility.

Where the extended family is the norm, mobility tends to be severely limited.