Unit 8: Class

Question 1

: Read Marjie Bloys text “Chartism” and answer the questions below:
a) How would you describe a typical chartist?

Answer 1

-Working class man (from artisans to factory workers)
-There is no typical chartist because they all had differing views

Question 2

b) Which where the main reforms proposed by the Chartist Movement?

Answer 2

-Chart is a legal document which demands: social rights, higher wages, universal suffrage
-Six political demands
parliamentary elections
prosperity, political rights, libertarian reforms, socialism

Question 3

c) How did the upper classes perceive Chartism?

Answer 3

As a socialist restructuring of society, as an attack on property

Question 4

: Read the following excerpts from Joahn Hartingans article “upon Culture: the case of white trash” and answer the questions:
a) What are signs of white trash stereotype?

Answer 4

-In West Virginia they were assigned to people who were socially and economically backwards (isolation from community or unruly behaviour)
-also assigned to lower or similar class whites (the whites that don’t fit into the stereotypes of whites being dominant in politics and having social privilege)

Question 5

b) Why do whites call other whites in such an insulting way?

Answer 5

-To separate themselves from problematic whites that disrupt the order of society (whites being the dominant race)

Question 6

Read Brian Eastons “The Maori in the Labour Force” and answer the questions below:
a) What is the occupation of the majority of Maoris?

Answer 6

-They are in the secondary labour market
- mostly in low quality jobs if they are employed (unemployment rates is big)

Question 7

b) Which sector of the Maori population shows a higher difference in the median incomes with respect to non-Maoris? Why do you think this is so?

Answer 7

-Primary employment,
-because of various reasons: they are discriminated against, don’t have housing, alcohol abuse

Question 8

Read the following excerpt from Tom O’neils article in the National Geographic Magazine “untouchable” and answer the following questions:
a) In which sense is the Indian Caste System incompatible with the western social principle of equal opportunity?

Answer 8

-The precept of the Caste System is: All men are created unequal
-if someone has bad karma he is reborn in a lower caste and has to work his way up or pay his debt
-There are some classes that don’t have the opportunity to evolve

Question 9

b) Where in India is the Chaste System more influential?

Answer 9

-In the rural areas of India (3/4 of the Indian population lives there)

Question 10

c) What is the origin of the Caste System in India?

Answer 10

Legend tells that the castes come from a primordial being
1.Mouth: priests and teachers
2.Arms: rulers and soldiers
3.Thighs: merchants and traders
4.Feet: laborers
And the fifth caste is the untouchables