Materialist vs Ideologist Theories

SOC 370: Social Change

Dr. Kimberly Martin

Ideological Explanations

Seeks explanations in the systems of shared beliefs that shape how people live, including how they make a living

Eisenstein’ explanation for gender stratification is a good example:

• Patriarchy is the belief that men are superior to women and ought to be in charge of society

• Patriarchial beliefs lead to gender stratification in society and the domination by men of women as a class of laborers who produce goods (children and products), and services (domestic labor) essential to society

MaterialismSeeks explanations for social organization in the economic

realm in which people use resources in their environment to make a living.

Most famous materialist theorist is Marx

1. The basis of human society is how humans work on nature to produce the means of subsistence.

2. There is a division of labor into social classes based on property ownership where some people live from the labor of others.

3. The system of class division is dependent on the mode of production.

4. The mode of production is based on the level of the technology. 5. Society moves from stage to stage when the dominant class is

displaced by a new emerging class, by overthrowing the "political shell" that enforces the old relations of production no longer corresponding to the new productive forces. (Class conflict)

Sanderson

Takes a materialist approach to social change, as have most sociologists and anthropologists

Sanderson believes that the main causal factors of social evolution are demographic, ecological, technological, and economic

All of these factors are materialistic in nature

Materialist Social Change Theories

• Focus on Subsistence strategiesTechnological efficiencyAccess to and control over resourcesAccess to and control over laborAccess to and control over surplusesDistribution of goods and servicesThe development of social stratification (social

classes)

Subsistence StrategiesFour General Types of Subsistence

1. Hunting & gathering/foraging societies

2. Horticultural societies

3. Pastoralist societies

4. Agricultural societies

Hunting and Gathering• Lived off naturally occurring plant and animal

resources without replenishing or nurturing them in any way.

• Lived in small groups of around 30-50 individuals• Were usually highly mobile (nomadic and semi-nomadic

(AKA transhumance))• Had very few possessions (digging stick, spear, bow and

arrows, carrying bag)• Did not consider land and resources as ownable,

believed in use-rights based on past experiences or supernatural nature of resources

• Egalitarian (gender equality and no social classes)• Modern H&Gs live in marginal environments

Pastoralism• Depend on herd animals for their livelihood

(goats, cattle, sheep, camels, llamas, reindeer, etc)

• Lived in groups of around 100 individuals• Were usually mobile (nomadic and semi-nomadic (AKA

transhumance))• Had very few possessions (only what can be packed on

a pack animal )• Did not consider land and resources other than herds as

ownable, believed in use-rights based on past experiences

• Egalitarian (no social classes, but usually patriarchal)

Horticulture

Depends on farming with hand tools only• Lived in groups of 100 to several thousand individuals• Were usually sedentary (villages or towns, or dispersed

homesteads loosely connected into tribal or kin group)• Have more possessions because they are sedentary• Use rights or ownership of land and resources may be

based on kin groups or individuals • May be egalitarian, ranked or stratified, depending on

the amount of surplus that can be produced using hand tools only in their environment.

Agriculture

Depend on farming using ploughs, draught animals, irrigation or machinery

• Live in groups consisting of thousands of individuals or larger

• Are sedentary (towns and cities)• Society based on possessions as status symbols• Individual ownership of resources • Usually stratified with multiple social classes

Industrialization

• Depends on mass production/factories (began rapid development with industrial revolution in England in 1600's).

•Resulted from application of scientific knowledge first to agriculture and then to manufacturing (crop rotation, steam power, specialized labor, spinning wheel). Massive increases in productivity, surplus, population, settlement size, and proportion freed from agricultural labor. Increased division of labor increased output, increased output allowed more expansion of division of labor (spiral effect).   Erosion of the family/kinship as the building block of social organization and continuing erosion of traditional (agriculture-based) institutions.

Post Industrialization

• Post Industrial Societies -  (Since the end of World War II)  

• Socialism, automation & advanced technology, decrease in industrial jobs, growth of service economy, split in the service sector, general decline of jobs.

Elman Service’sLevels of Sociocultural Integration

• Bands

• Tribes

• Chiefdoms

• States

• Empires

Bands

• Small (30-50 individuals) groups, • Egalitarian groups, • Usually nomadic/semi-nomadic

hunter/foragers, • Social organization based on personal

kinship relationships,• Use reciprocity to distribute goods and

services,• Gender and age division of labor

Tribes

Small (100-500 individuals),

Egalitarian groups, usually nomadic/semi-nomadic or villages

Horticultural or pastoralists

Social organization based on lineage membership where lineages are not ranked

Distribution of goods and services through reciprocity

Part time economic specialization

Chiefdoms

Medium-sized (1000’s of individuals),

Ranked or stratified groups,

Usually sedentary

Horticultural or pastoralists, occasionally hunters and gatherers/foragers

Social organization based on ranked lineages

Distribution of goods and services through redistribution

Part-time or some full time economic specialization

States

Large (100,000 to millions of individuals),

Stratified groups,

Urban settlements,

Agricultural subsistence

Social organization based on non-kin relationships

Distribution of goods and services through a market system (general purpose money)

Full time economic specialization/industrialization

Stratification

All states are stratified; Stratification is necessary for states.

However, not all stratified societies are states.

Empires

• A state that has conquered and rules by force one or more other societies.

• The Roman Empire

• The Spanish Empire

• The British Empire

Fried’s Materialism

Morton Fried’s Theory of Evolution of Societies through the development of Social Stratification

1. Egalitarian Societies = Bands/Tribes2. Ranked Societies = Chiefdoms2. Stratified Societies = States/Empires

Materialism

• Unidirectional change/evolution from simple to complex technologies, from egalitarian to stratified societies

• Stratification is found when surpluses are produced and are available to some and not to others

• Concurrent changes in subsistence, technology, stratification, kinship and family structures, distribution systems, political and religious systems

• Which is the cause and which the effect?

• Is this teleological, progressive? Is it a representation of what we have seen happening? Have all societies evolved in the same ways?

Study GuideIdeological Explanations Agriculture

Eisenstein Service

Materialist Explanations Bands

Marx Tribes

Subsistence strategies Chiefdoms

Technological efficiency States

Access to and control over resources Empires

Access to and control over labor Egalitarian

Access to and control over surpluses Ranked

Distribution of goods and services Stratified

Social Classes (Stratification) Fried

Hunting and Gathering Teleology

Pastoralism

Horticulture