Chapter 7 Terms

Question 1

the division of large numbers of people into layers according to their relative property, power, and prestige; applies to both nations and to people within a nation, society, or other group

Answer 1

social stratification

Question 2

a contractual system in which someone sells his or her body for a specified period of time in an arrangement very close to slavery, except it is entered into voluntarily

Answer 2

bonded labor (indentured service)

Question 3

beliefs about the way things ought to be that justify social arrangements

Answer 3

ideology

Question 4

a form of social stratification in which birth determines people’s statuses, which are lifelong

Answer 4

caste system

Question 5

the practice of marrying within one’s own group

Answer 5

endogamy

Question 6

the government approved and enforced separation of racial ethnic groups as was practice in South Africa

Answer 6

apartheid

Question 7

the stratification system of medieval Europe, consisting of three groups or estates: the nobility, clergy, and commoners

Answer 7

estate stratification system

Question 8

a form of social stratification based primarily on income, education, and prestige of occupation

Answer 8

class system

Question 9

movement up or down on the social class ladder

Answer 9

social mobility

Question 10

the tools, factories, land, and investment capital used to produce wealth

Answer 10

means of production

Question 11

Karl Marx’s terms for capitalists, those who own the means of production

Answer 11

bourgeoisie

Question 12

Karl Marx’s term for the exploited class, the mass of workers who do not own the means of production

Answer 12

proletariat

Question 13

Karl Marx’s term for awareness of a common identity based on one’s position in the means of production

Answer 13

class consciousness

Question 14

Karl Marx’s term to refer to workers identifying with the interests of capitalists

Answer 14

false class consciousness

Question 15

a form of social stratification in which all positions are awarded on the basis of merit

Answer 15

meritocracy

Question 16

the idea that the king’s authority comes from God; in an interesting gender bender, also applies to queens

Answer 16

divine right of kings

Question 17

the process by which one nation takes over another nation, making a colony of it, usually for the purpose of exploiting its labor and natural resources

Answer 17

colonialism

Question 18

a theory of how economic and political connections developed among nations, connections that now link the world’s countries

Answer 18

world system theory

Question 19

capitalism becoming the globe’s dominant economic system

Answer 19

globalization of capitalism

Question 20

the assumption that the values and behaviors of the poor make them fundamentally different from other people, that these factors are largely responsible for their poverty, and that parents perpetuate poverty across generations by passing these characteristics to their children

Answer 20

culture of poverty

Question 21

the economic and political dominance of the Least Industrialized Nations by the Most Industrialized Nations

Answer 21

neocolonialism

Question 22

companies that operate across national boundaries; also called transnational corporations

Answer 22

multinational corporations

Question 23

a form of social stratification in which some people own other people

Answer 23

slavery