Social Differentiation and Social Change: From Preindustrial to Industrial Societies

History of Civilization = History of Stratification

Materialist vs. Ideological Conceptions of History

Material Conditions

What can also be called the material infrastructure consists of the basic raw materials and social forms pertinent to human survival and adaptation. A society’s material infrastructure is its most basic component in the sense that without it, physical survival is literally impossible (or highly improbable).

Consists of:

Technology, Economy, Ecology, Demography

Materialist vs. Ideological Conceptions of History

Ideological Conditions

Involves the patterned ways in which the members of a society think, conceptualize, evaluate, and feel, as opposed to what they actually do. It refers to thought, ideas, etc.

It has five components: General Ideology, Religion, Science, Art, and Literature

Materialist vs. Ideological Conceptions of History

Relationship between material and ideological structures:

      The material conditions of society is what drives sociocultural phenomena, e.g. social change and stratification.

      Ideas are important, but the types and kinds of ideas people have are rooted in the material conditions.

Mode of production = A society’s combined level of technological development combined with the overall organization of its economy, including the division of labor.

How does social change occur? Societies change by resolving their “internal contradictions.”

  Mode of Production  

Type of Society Means Form of Ownership

Degree of Inequality

1. Primitive Communism

H/G Collective Low

2. Ancient Society Agriculture Private High

3. Feudalism Agriculture Private High

4. Capitalism Industrial Private High

5. Socialism Industrial Collective Low

Marx and Social Change

Lenski’s (1966) Theory of Stratification: ECONOMIC SURPLUS

Scarce and valued goods are distributed according to need and power.

In subsistence-only conditions, need prevails. In surplus conditions, power prevails.

Power is exercised in many ways and according to the abilities of the power-holders. Violent force is the most effective and dominant form.

When societies began to produce an economic surplus, i.e. the economic goods above and beyond subsistence level, stratification began.

The origins can be traced to the beginnings of larger scale social systems above hunter gatherer, and can be directly observable in agrarian societies.

Types of SocietiesHunter-Gatherer

Pastoralists Horticulturalists Agrarian

Spatial Territory

Nomadic XSemi-Nomadic XNomadic with Crop Rotation X

Non-Nomadic X

Types of SocietiesHunter-Gatherer

Pastoralists Horticulturalists Agrarian

Size of Community

12 – 100 X100 – 300 X X300 + X

Types of SocietiesHunter-Gatherer

Pastoralists Horticulturalists Agrarian

Political Organization

Communal X

Specialized Part-Time Politicians

X (varies)

X X

Specialized Full-Time Politicians

X (varies) X

Male Dominance of…

X X X X

Types of SocietiesHunter-Gatherer

Pastoralists Horticulturalists Agrarian

Economic Surplus Level (see Lenski 1966)

None X

Low X

Moderate X

High X (early)

Very High X (late)

Types of SocietiesHunter-Gatherer

Pastoralists Horticulturalists Agrarian

Type of Stratification System

Primitive Communal X

Slavery X

Caste X

Empire X

Transition to Stratification

Neolithic revolution = a name for the transition from hunter gatherer societies to the beginnings of horticultural and agricultural societies. Not so much a revolution as a slow, gradual change.

Consequences of the Neolithic Revolution that led to social stratification

Dramatic population increase

Development of complex human organizations, including separate institutions for political,

economic, military, and religion

Development of slavery

Decline in the status of women

Agrarian Empires

Early Middle Late

Mesopotamia Islamic Spain

Babylonia Maya Portugal

China Aztec England

Egypt France

Nubia Ottoman

Greece

First Appeared…

Rome

Transition to Industrialization

-- Fall of feudalism

-- Rise of the merchant class

-- Legitimation of stratification system changed from of “tradition” of hereditary nobility and religious authority to economic advantage.