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 ClassIncomeEducationOccupation% Capitalist$1,000,000Prestige universities CEOs, investors1 Upper middle $100,000Top colleges /postgraduat e Upper managers 14 Middle$55,000High school /some college teachers, civil servants 30 Working$35,000High schoolClerical, sales, factory 30 Working poor $22,000Some high school Service, laborers 13 Underclass$10,000 or less Some high school Unemployed12

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 Interracial and 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 Interracial and 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.