Chapter 13

Social Stratification

Chapter Outline

Dimensions of Social Inequality Types of Societies Racial and Ethnic Stratification Race and Ethnicity in the United States Forms of Intergroup Relations Theories of Stratification

Social Inequality

Max Weber’s criteria for measuring social inequality: – Wealth– Power– Prestige

Three Types of Societies

Based on levels of social inequality: – Egalitarian– Rank– Stratified societies

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

Rank Societies

Unequal access to prestige but not to wealth or power.

Fixed number of high-status positions, which only certain individuals can occupy.

Others are excluded regardless of skills, wisdom, industriousness, or personal traits.

Found most prominently in Oceania and among Native Americans of the Northwest.

Stratified Societies

Considerable inequality in power, wealth, and prestige.

Closely associated with the rise of civilization approximately 5,500 years ago.

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

U.S. Class Structure

Class Income Education Occupation %

Capitalist $1,000,000 Prestige universities

CEOs, investors

1

Upper middle

$100,000 Top colleges /postgraduate

Upper managers

14

Middle $55,000 High school /some college

teachers, civil servants

30

Working $35,000 High school Clerical, sales, factory

30

Working poor

$22,000 Some high school

Service, laborers

13

Underclass

$10,000 or less

Some high school

Unemployed 12

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.

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.

Forms of Interracialand Interethnic 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 Interracialand Interethnic 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.