Lesson 6 Keywords

Question 1

a form of social stratification in which one’s status is determined by birth and is lifelong

Answer 1

caste system

Question 2

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

Answer 2

class consciousness

Question 3

a form of social stratification based primarily on the possession of money or material possessions

Answer 3

class system

Question 4

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

Answer 4

colonialism

Question 5

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 5

culture of poverty

Question 6

companies that operate across many national boundaries; also called transnational corporations

Answer 6

multinational corporations

Question 7

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

Answer 7

neocolonialism

Question 8

according to Weber, a large number of people who rank close to each other in wealth, property, and prestige; according to Marx, one of two groups

Answer 8

social class

Question 9

movement up or down the social class ladder

Answer 9

social mobility

Question 10

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

Answer 10

social stratification

Question 11

economic and political connections that tie the world’s countries together

Answer 11

world system theory

Question 12

a condition resulting from status inconsistency

Answer 12

anomie

Question 13

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

Answer 13

culture of poverty

Question 14

movement down the social class ladder

Answer 14

downward social mobility

Question 15

about the same numbers of people moving up and down the social class ladder such that, on balance, the social class system shows little change

Answer 15

exchange mobility

Question 16

the belief that, due to limitless possibilities, anyone can get ahead if he or she tries hard enough

Answer 16

Horatio Alger myth

Question 17

the change that family members make in social class from one generation to the next

Answer 17

intergenerational mobility

Question 18

the official measure of poverty; calculated to include those whose incomes are less than three times a low-cost food budget

Answer 18

poverty line

Question 19

the ability to carry out your will, even over the resistance of others

Answer 19

power

Question 20

C. Wright Mills’s term for the top people in U.S. corporations, military, and politics who make the nation’s major decisions

Answer 20

power elite

Question 21

according to Weber, a large number of people who rank close to each other in wealth, power, and prestige; according to Marx, one of two groups

Answer 21

social class

Question 22

social ranking; the position that someone occupies in society or a social group

Answer 22

status

Question 23

movement up or down the social class ladder due to changes in the structure of society, not to individual efforts

Answer 23

structural mobility

Question 24

a group of people for whom poverty persists year after year and across generations

Answer 24

underclass

Question 25

movement up the social class ladder

Answer 25

upward social mobility