Social Inequality Flashcards
social inequality
- unequal access to the culturally valued resources of wealth, power and prestige
- people are distinguished through these resources people have
- they control over others or are controlled through this resources
egalitarian societies
Forgers are egalitarian, because there are few possessions, and little specialization, lack of organizational, cooperative everybody needs each other so everyone is equally valued
theory of foregoers
no private property there is no state no class and therefore no inequality, by Marx and Engels
ranked societies
Horticultural societies, surplus gives rise to resources and privileges
divided into hierarchical structure, organized hierarchy leads to division of labour
stratified societies
societies are divided into horizontal layers of equality and inequality, more people at the bottom than at the top, this exists only in complex large societies
characteristics of stratified societies
- control wealth and power in the hands of the few
- status and rewards are heritable
- social mobility is limited
class
a ranked group within a stratified society characterised by achieved status and considerable social mobility
achieved status
position grained on merit or achievement
ascribed status
position based on who you are not what you do, family background, race, sex, place of birth
plato’s classes
2 class: rich or power
Aristotle’s classes
3 classes: upper class, servile lower class, worthy middle class (moral classes)
Romans
Assidui (richest) Proletrii (owned only children)
Marx’s idea of class
Bourgeoise (own land and machinery) and Proletariat (those who sell their labour)
Max Weber 3 dimensions of class and definition of class
class is a group of people with similar “life chances” property, prestige, and power
verbal evaluation
singling out or speaking favourably or unfavourably about a group of people and their political, economic, other qualities
patterns of association
informatl friendly relations, taplce mainly within one’s own class
other characteristics of defining class
wealth, dress, forms or recreation, residential location, material possessions
patterns of association
you make friends within you own class
greek class distinction
slaves were not allowed to wear shoes
sumptuary laws
- codes and ethics on who could dress how in society, they way they dressed showed what class they were from, laws placed by King Henry 4
Pierre Bourdieu
wrote ‘cultural capital’ concluded that lower classes focused on survival/necessity not luxury
Occupy Movement sept 2011
movement in Canada that grew out of dissatisfaction of wealth disparity
Poverty line
the condition in a given society in which people lack the income required to access the necessities of life
homeless
a situation in which an individual or family lack permanent stable housing
status symbols
cultural items that convey a person’s status
caste systems
stratification system where cultural or racial differences are used as basis for ascribing status
born into cast- rigid system
ranked by purity and pollution
4 varnas
Brahmin (priests) (rewarded with honour), Khastriya (warriors) (rewarded with power), Vaishya (commoners, traders, farmers etc) (rewarded with wealth), Suhra (servants, manual labours- rewarded with freedom from responsibility)
strata
layers within a stratified society
stratification systems vary by
- size of strata
- agreement about order of the system
- number of groups in the strata
- amount of social mobility
what are Pierre Bordieu’s cultural assets
- dress, tastes, speech, body language, information
social reproduction
classes tend to reproduce themselves culturally
Pollution regulations among stratas
each rank has rules on regulations on how they must keep pure and avoid pollution, and this regulates how they interact with one another
how people are placed in a varna
it is a reward or punishment based on what the person did in their past life
Hypergamy
a large dowry that will permit a woman of low class marry into a higher class
Other forms of Hypergamy
name changing, converting to a religion, moving locations, false genealogies
changes in caste in modern world
- caste systems are not as pertinent
- Caste system was abolished by indian government
- caste free rolls emerging (teachers, bureaucrats etc has made castes less important)
one-drop rule
US rule during segregation, if person had any black relative they were also considered black
hypodescent
assigning a mixed-race person to lower of the two races that they are a mix of
ethnicity
linguistic and cultural heritage someone identifies with
structural racism
the institutions and systems of society are structured in a way to discriminate and disadvantage a certain race
Samuel Morton
concluded that Africans had the smallest brain capacity while Europeans had they highest
racism vs discrimination
racism is discrimination based on race, discrimination is being treated different based on other factors like age sex etc
