Download - Social Stratification and Non- Kin Social Organization Anthropology 330 Kimberly Porter Martin
Social Stratification and Non-Kin Social Organization
Anthropology 330
Kimberly Porter Martin
Non-Kin Social Organization Age Sets –
a social group consisting of people of similar age, who have a common identity, maintain close ties over a prolonged period, and together pass through a series of age-related statuses
Age Grades - age grade, through which people pass individually over time
Voluntary Associations - voluntarily enter into an agreement to form a body (or organization) to accomplish a common purpose because of a special shared interest
Ethnic groups -
formed on the basis of shared heritage and ancestry
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.
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.
World Systems Theory
Core Countries Semi-peripheral countries Peripheral countries
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
Study GuideAge Grades PluralismAge Sets AssimilationVoluntary Associations Legal protection of minoritiesEthnic Groups Population transferWealth Long term subjugationPower GenocidePrestige Functionalist theoryEgalitarian Conflict theoryRanked Bourgeoisie Stratified ProletariatAchieved status Global Stratification Ascribed status World systems theory Class Core countriesCaste Semi-peripheral countriesRace Peripheral countries
Ethnic stratification