reading Response 4
azi4mk
anth_220_feb_25_lecture.ppt
Social Stratification
http://maid-online.blogspot.com
http://maid-online.blogspot.com
Social Stratification
- Societies vary in the degree to which social groups have access to resources
- Anthropologists study unequal access to 3 types of resources:
Wealth or economic resources
Power
Prestige
Social Stratification
- Wealth is the the economic resources that have material value in a culture. They include such thing as land, tools, and other technologies, goods, and money
- Power is the ability to make others do what they do not want to do. It may be physically enforced
- Prestige occurs when someone is given respect or honor
Stratification
- Anthropologists define 3 types of societies in terms of access to social and economic advantages:
Egalitarian Societies
Rank Societies
Class Societies
Stratification: Egalitarian Societies
- Egalitarian societies contain no social group with greater or lesser access to economic resources, prestige, or power
- Include foragers such as the !Kung, Mbuti, Inuit, and Australian Aborigines, as well as horticulturalists like the Yanomamo and pastoralists like the Lapps
- Even in egalitarian societies, there are differences in age, gender, skills, and abilities
Egalitarian Societies
- Egalitarian societies use several mechanisms to keep leaders from dominating others, including:
Criticism
Ridicule
Disobedience
Death
Or moving away from the self-appointed leader
Egalitarian Societies
http://users.stlcc.edu
Rank Societies
- Rank societies are usually agricultural or pastoralist societies
- Ranking occurs in groups equal access to economic resources or power but unequal access to prestige
- Unequal access to prestige is often reflected in the position of chief
Rank Societies
- Among the Nimpkish—a Kwakiutl group of Canada—the main way to improve one’s prestige involves giving away wealth
- Tribal chiefs sponsor potlatches during which they give away gifts to every guest
- This status of chief is usually hereditary
Rank Societies
- Some researchers question whether chiefs might also have more material wealth, as well as prestige
- The idea of economic equality in rank societies is beginning to be questioned
- For instance, on the atoll of Ifaluk, chiefs received more gifts than they gave away. Similarly, they appeared to work a little less than others
Class Societies
- Class societies are found in every country
- In class societies, there is unequal access to wealth, prestige, and power
www.latinamericanstudies.org
Class Societies
- In class societies, social status or prestige of a family generally correlates with the occupation and wealth of the head of the family
http://adinkrafilms.blogspot.com
- There is a high probability that most people will stay close to the class in which they were born and will probably marry within this class
- Classes tend to perpetuate themselves through the inheritance of wealth
Class Societies
- Identification with a social class begins early in life
- Classes vary according to their occupations, wealth, prestige, religious affiliation, job satisfaction, ideas about child rearing, leisure-time activities, styles of clothes and furniture, and styles of speech
Class Societies
- Class boundaries are established by custom and tradition and can be enforced through law (e.g., through the protection of property)
- Often, the poor are disadvantaged by this kind of legal system
www.maid-online.blogspot.com
http://regentsprep.org
Class Societies
- Often, obtaining an education is an effective way for someone to move upward. Educational attainment predicts one’s social class better than a parent’s occupation
- Nevertheless, mobility includes moving down as well as moving up
- Canada, Finland, and Sweden have more mobility than the U.S. and Britain. Mexico and Peru have less mobility than the U.S. and Brazil
Class Societies
www.egyptianoasis.net
www.egyptianoasis.net
Class Societies
- Class mobility is not the same as economic inequality. Japan, Italy, and Germany have less mobility than the U.S., yet have more equality
- Indeed, of the advanced capitalist countries, the U.S. has the greatest degree of inequality
