Social Stratification PDF

**Social Stratification: Definition** A society where stratification does not exist is a sentence which will always be illogical and untrue. Now the question is what stratification is. A system which has been followed by society from a generation in which there is some kind of classification betwee...

**Social Stratification: Definition** A society where stratification does not exist is a sentence which will always be illogical and untrue. Now the question is what stratification is. A system which has been followed by society from a generation in which there is some kind of classification between people in the name of race, caste, creed etc. **Social stratification theories** There will be some basis depending on which there can be differences between rights and power between subgroups. You can see from the early times wherein foreign lands, power was in hand of upper **CLASSIFICATION OF MODERN STRATIFICATION** **Social Stratification** So socially differentiated men are treated as socially unequal from the point of view of enjoyment of social rewards like status, power, income etc. That may be called social inequality. The term social inequality simply refers to the existence of socially created inequalities. **Meanings:** Social stratification is a particular form of social inequality. All societies arrange their members in terms of superiority, inferiority and equality. Stratification is a process of interaction or differentiation whereby some people come to rank higher than others. In one word, when individuals and groups are ranked, according to some commonly accepted basis of valuation in a hierarchy of status levels based upon the inequality of social positions, social stratification occurs. Social stratification means division of society into different strata or layers. It involves a hierarchy of social groups. Members of a particular layer have a common identity. They have a similar life style. The Indian Caste system provides an example of stratification system. The society in which divisions of social classes exist is known as a stratified society. Modern stratification fundamentally differs from stratification of primitive societies. Social stratification involves two phenomena (i) differentiation of individuals or groups on the basis of possession of certain characteristics whereby some individuals or groups come to rank higher than others, (ii) the ranking of individuals according to some basis of evaluation. Sociologists are concerned not merely with the facts of social differences but also with their social evaluation. **Definitions:** 1\. Ogburn and Nimkoff: 'The process by which individuals and groups are ranked in more or less enduring hierarchy of status is known as stratification" **2. Lundberg:** "A stratified society is one marked by inequality, by differences among people that are evaluated by them as being "lower" and "higher". **3. Gisbert:** "Social stratification is the division of society into permanent groups of categories linked with each other by the relationship of superiority and subordinations". **4. Williams** Social Stratification refers to "The ranking of individuals on a scale of superiority-inferiority-equality, according to some commonly accepted basis of valuation. **5. Raymond W. Murray:** Social stratification is horizontal division of society into "higher" and "lower" social units." **6. Melvin M Tumin:** "Social stratification refers to "arrangement of any social group or society into hierarchy of positions that are unequal with regard to power, property, social evaluation and psychic gratification". **Origin of Stratification:** Regarding the origin of stratification many views have been given. i. According to Davis, social stratification has come into being due to the functional necessity of the social system. ii. Professor Sorokin attributed social stratification mainly to inherited difference in environmental conditions. iii. According to Karl Mrax, social factors are responsible for the emergence of different social strata, i.e. social stratification. iv. Gumplowioz and other contended that the origin of social stratification is to be found in the conquest of one group by another. v. According to Spengler, social stratification is founded upon scarcity which is created whenever society differentiates positive in terms of functions and powers. vi. Racial differences accompanied by dissimilarity also leads to stratification. **Types of Social Stratification:** Social stratification is based upon a variety of principles. So we find different type of stratification. The major types of stratification are **(i) Caste** **(ii) Class** **(iii) Estate** **(iv) Slavery** i. Caste is a hereditary endogamous social group in which a person's rank and its accompanying rights and obligations are ascribed on the basis of his birth into a particular group. For example-Brahmins, Kshyatryas, Vaishyas and Sudra Caste. ii. Class-Stratification on the basis of class is dominant in modern society. In this, a person's position depends to a very great extent upon achievement and his ability to use to advantage the inborn characteristics and wealth that he may possess. iii. Estate system of medieval Europe provides another system of stratification which gave much emphasis to birth as well as to wealth and possessions. Each estate had a state. iv. Slavery had economic basis. In slavery, every slave had his master to whom he was subjected. The master's power over the slave was unlimited. There are three types of classification which is popular and well known by every individual social stratification levels **PRINCIPLES OF STRATIFICATION** There are four basic principles of Stratification which can be seen from the early times:- Stratification is present and viewed upon the whole community of a society. It does not represent any single individual of a society. In short, it is a mass phenomenon rather than an individual insight. For example in India Hindu religion is not used for a particular individual, instead, it is a collection of so many people altogether. Stratification is not a new phenomenon of society. It has been present in our society from a long period of time, in fact from the time human beings evolution proceeded, its existence has been observed. Only a few changes have been observed but it's a global phenomenon existing in every part of the world. Although Stratification is a global phenomenon, its level of effects and happenings is the different place to place. Stratification is a combination of beliefs and norms which has occupied people's mind from generations. The inequality is not anybody's agenda but having beliefs different from others makes Stratification come into account. **Characteristics of Social Stratification:** On the basis of the analysis of the different definitions given by eminent scholars, social stratification may have the following characteristics. a. **Social stratification is universal:** There is no society on this world which is free from stratification. Modern stratification differs from stratification of primitive societies. It is a worldwide phenomenon. According to Sorokin "all permanently organized groups are stratified." b. **Stratification is social:** It is true that biological qualities do not determine one's superiority and inferiority. Factors like age, sex, intelligence as well as strength often contribute as the basis on which statues are distinguished. But one's education, property, power, experience, character, personality etc. are found to be more important than biological qualities. Hence, stratification is social by nature. c. **It is ancient:** Stratification system is very old. It was present even in the small wondering bonds. In almost all the ancient civilizations, the differences between the rich and poor, humble andpowerful existed. During the period of Plato and Kautilya even emphasis was given to political, social and economic inequalities. d. **It is in diverse forms:** The forms of stratification is not uniform in all the societies. In the modern world class, caste and estate are the general forms of stratification. In India a special type of stratification in the form of caste is found. The ancient Aryas were divided into four varnas: the Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Sudras. The ancient Greeks were divided into freemen and slaves and the ancient Romans were divided into the particians and the plebians. So every society, past or present, big or small is characterized by diversed forms of social stratification. e. **Social stratification is Consequential:** Social stratification has two important consequences one is "life chances" and the other one is "life style". A class system not only affects the "life- chances" of the individuals but also their "life style". The members of a class have similar social chances but the social chances vary in every society. It includes chances of survival and of good physical and mental health, opportunities for education, chances of obtaining justice, marital conflict, separation and divorce etc. Life style denotes a style of life which is distinctive of a particular social status. Life-styles include such matters like the residential areas in every community which have gradations of prestige-ranking, mode of housing, means of recreation, the kinds of dress, the kinds of books, TV shows to which one is exposed and so on. Life-style may be viewed as a sub-culture in which one stratum differs from another within the frame work of a commonly shared over-all culture. **Social Stratification and Social Mobility:** Social mobility refers to the movement within the social structure, from one social position to another. It means a change in social status. All societies provide some opportunity for social mobility. But the societies differ from each other to extent in which individuals can move from one class or status level to another. It is said that the greater the amount of social mobility, the more open the class structure. The concept of social mobility has fundamental importance in ascertaining the relative "openness" of a social structure. The nature, forms, direction and magnitude of social mobility depends on the nature and types of social stratification. Sociologists study social mobility in order to find out the relative 'openness' of a social structure. Any group that improves its standard will also improve its social status. But the rate of social mobility is not uniform in all the countries. It differs from society to society from time to time. In India the rate of mobility is naturally low because of agriculture being the predominant occupation and the continuity of caste system as compared to the other countries of the world. **Types of Social Mobility:** In social stratification the movement occurs in three directions. **(a) From lower to higher** **(b) From higher to lower** **(c) Between two positions at the same level.** **Social mobility is of two types:** **(i) Vertical mobility** **(ii) Horizontal mobility** i. **Vertical mobility:** It refers to the movement of people from one stratum to another or from one status to another. It brings changes in class, occupation and power. It involves movement fromlower to higher or higher to lower. There are two types of vertical mobility. One is upward and other is downward mobility. When an individual moves from lower status to higher status, it is called upward mobility. For example, if the son of a peon joins a bank as an officer, it is said to be upward social mobility but if he loses the job due to any other reason or inefficiency, he is downwardly mobile from his previous job. So downward mobility takes place when a person moves down from one position to another and change his status. ii. **Horizontal Mobility:** It refers to the movement of people from one social group to another situated on the same level. It means that the ranks of these two groups are not different. It indicates change in position without the change in status. For example, if a teacher leaves one school and joins another school or a bank officer leaves one branch to work in another or change of residence are the horizontal mobility. **Horizontal mobility** Apart from the above two broad types of social stratification, there are two other types of social stratification in terms of dimension of time. They are: **(i) Inter-generational mobility:** When changes in status occur from one generation to another, it is called intergenerational mobility. For example, if the son changes his status either by taking upon occupation of higher or lower rank with that of his father, there inter-generational mobility takes place. **(ii) Intra-generational mobility:** When changes in status occur within one generation, it is called intra-generational mobility. For example, the rise and fall in the occupational structure of a family which leads to change in its social status within one generation is called intra-generational mobility. **Stratification and Caste:** Under the caste system status is hereditary. It is based on birth, it is purely an ascribed status. Once such positions are assigned, they can not advance and improve their social status in any way. Hence, caste as a major type of social stratification does not facilitate vertical social mobility. **Social Stratification and Class:** Class is an "open" system. Under this system vertical mobility is absolutely free. Movement from one status to another has no barrier. Status is based on achievement. It is determined by the talents, wealth, money, intelligence, power, education, income, etc. of a person. There is no inheritance of parental status. **Gender:** Like caste and class gender is another kind of social stratification system. Gender, perhaps is the oldest and permanent source of social differentiation. But within the broad hierarchy of caste and class, gender cuts across caste and class. In present day Indian society caste, class and gender are dynamic phenomena which vary between groups, communities and regions. Recent years have witnessed a thorough and widespread discussion on gender. It has claimed critical address within ender as a concept and as a set of practices has occurred during the last three decades. The origin of the concept gender can be traced to the 19th century women's movement and in Marxism. But it seems to have first appeared among American Feminists who wanted to reject biological determinism. Feminists prefer the term gender than sex. But the term gender means much more than sex and more inclusive than sex. It is a socially constructed category rather than biologically determined. The gender of a man is masculine and a woman is feminine. Neither a man nor a woman is sex alone. Gender refers to the socially constructed and culturally determined role that men and women play in their day-to-day lives. Gender is the most potent significant and enormously useful analytical concept used by the feminists. It is a matter of social ascription, a socio-cultural construction and provided a deeper analysis of inequalities existing between male and female. It refers to the social institutionalization of sexual difference. In feminist literature gender is not a value free concept rather a value loaded term and has acquired new dimensions. It is a conceptual tool for analysis and is used to highlight different structural relationships of inequality between men and women. As a socially constructed differences and relations between males and females it very from time to time and from place to place. Gender is defined as the social construction of relations between women and men and among various groups of women and men. Feminist consider gender as the socio-cultural manifestation of being a man or a woman. \(1) According to N. Kabeer "Gender is seen as the process by which individuals who are born into biological categories of male or female become the social categories of men and women through the acquisition of locally defined attributes of masculinity and feminity." \(2) According to A. Masefield---"Gender can be defined as a notion that offers a set of frameworks within which the social and ideological construction and representation of differences between sexes are explained." \(3) According to ILO, "Gender refers to the social differences and relations between men and women, which are learned, which vary widely among societies and cultures and change over time." Thus, gender involves power structure and economic relationships. It is used to analyze the role, responsibilities, constraints, needs of men and women in all areas. It encompasses the social division and cultural distinctions between women and men. It plays an important role in shaping institutions and practices in every society. Essay on the Functions of Social Stratification -- The glimpse of the cultures of the world reveals that no society is 'classless', that is, unstratified. All the known established societies of the world are stratified in one way or the other. According to Wilbert Moore and Kingsley Davis, stratification system came to be evolved in all the societies due to the functional necessity. As they have pointed out the main functional necessity of the system is: "the requirement faced by any society of placing and motivating individuals in the social struc­ture Social inequality is thus an unconsciously evolved device by which societies ensure that the most important positions are conscientiously filled by the most qualified persons". FUNCTIONS OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION: As analysed by H.M. Johnson certain things here can be noted about the "functional necessity" of class stratification system. 1\. Encourages hard work: One of the main functions of class stratification is to induce people to work hard to live up to values. Those who best fulfill the values of a particular society are normally rewarded with greater prestige and social acceptance by others. It is known that occupations are ranked high if their functions are highly important and the required personnel are very scarce. Hard work, prolonged training and heavy burden of responsibility are associated with such occupational positions. People undertaking such works are rewarded with money, prestige comforts, etc. Still we cannot say that all those positions which are regarded as important are adequately compensated 2\. Ensures circulation of elites: To some extent class stratification helps to ensure what is often called "the circulation of the elite". When a high degree of prestige comforts and other re­wards are offered for certain positions, there will be some competition for them. This process of competition helps to ensure that the more efficient people are able to rise to the top, where their ability can best be used. 3\. Serves an economic function: The competitive aspect has a kind of economic function in that it helps to ensure the rational use of available talent. It is also functionally necessary to offer differential rewards if the positions at the top are largely ascribed as it is in the case of caste system. Even in caste system the people at the top can lose their prestige if they fail to maintain certain standards. Hence differential rewards provide the incentives for the upper classes to work at main­taining their positions. 4\. Prevents waste of resources: The stratification system prevents the waste of scarce resources. The men in the elite class actually possess scarce and socially valued abilities and qualities, whether these are inherited or acquired. Because of their possession of these qualities their enjoyment of some privileges such as extra comfort and immunity from doing menial work, are functionally jus­tified. It becomes functionally beneficial for the society to make use of their talents without being wasted. For Example, it would be a waste to pour the resources of society into the training of doctors and engineers, and then making them to work as peons and attendants. When once certain individu­als are chosen and are trained for certain difficult positions it would be dysfunctional to waste their time and energy on tasks for which there is enough manpower. 5\. Stabilises and reinforces the attitudes and skills: Members of a class normally try to limit their relations to their own class. More intimate relationships are mostly found between fellow class- members. Even this tendency has its own function. It tends to stabilise and reinforce the attitudes and skills that may be the basis of upper-class position. Those who have similar values and interests tend to associate comfortably with one another. Their frequent association itself confirms their common values and interests. 6\. Helps to pursue different professions or jobs: The values, attitudes and qualities of differ­ent classes do differ. This difference is also functional for society to some extent. Because society needs manual as well as nonmanual workers. Many jobs are not attractive to highly trained or 're­fined' people for they are socialised to aspire for certain other jobs. Because of the early influence of family and socialisation the individuals imbibe in them certain values, attitudes and qualities rel­evant to the social class to which they belong. This will influence their selection of jobs. 7\. Social Control: Further, to the extent that 'lower class' cultural characteristics are essential to society, the classes are, of course, functional. In fact, certain amount of mutual antagonism be­tween social classes is also functional. To some extent, upper-class and lower-class groups can act as negative reference groups for each other. Thus they act as a means of social control also. 8\. Controlling effect on the 'shady' world: Class stratification has another social control function. Even in the 'shady' world of gamblers and in the underworld of lower criminals, black- marketers, racketeers, smugglers, etc., the legitimate class structure has got respectability. They know that money is not a substitute for prestige but only a compensation for renouncing it. Hence instead of continuing in a profitable shady career, such people want to gain respectability for their money and for their children. They try to enter ligitimate fields and become philanthropists and patrons of the arts. Thus the legitimate class structure continues to attract the shady classes and the underworld. **8 Essential Features of Social Stratification in India** The following are the essential elements/features of Social Stratification: 1\. Inequality or Higher-lower positions: Social Stratification involves division of society into several layers which stand hierarchically placed in social relations. While some positions or levels carry more rewards, more privileges, more respect, and these are considered to be higher levels; others enjoy lower positions and status. In this way stratification acts as a source of social inequality which is, however, deemed to be natural and essential for orderly, systematic and healthy social life. 2\. Social Stratification is a Source of Competition: Stratification leads to the emergence of several levels in society. The persons belonging to higher levels are conscious of their higher positions and they try to maintain and improve these. The persons belonging to lower levels always try to secure higher positions. This gives rise to social competition which acts as a means of social progress. However, when this competition becomes unhealthy and very big, it leads to the birth of social conflict, struggles, jealousies and rivalries. 3\. Every Status has a Particular Prestige Associated with it: Every social position and status is associated with a particular prestige. However, this difference has to logical. It is not to be based on evil practices like casteism, religious superstitions and rituals. In ancient India, the class of Brahmins used to enjoy a superior position by birth and because of the supreme importance given to religious ceremonies. However, with the passage of time, the faith in the superior position of Brahmins got greatly diluted. Now persons belonging to other classes have also secured higher positions in society. Every social class in now entitled to a life of dignity and respect. The difference can be of degree but not organic and irrational. 4\. Stratification Involves a Stable, Enduring and Hierarchical Division of Society: Stratification leads to a very stable, enduring hierarchical and quite permanent division in society. Division between the two classes of rich and poor has been continuously present in every society In India, caste based social stratification has been so strong that it even continues to survive today. Caste based stratification has been very rigid and permanent and a person belonging to one caste can never join another caste. 5\. Different Statuses are Inter-dependent: Social stratification involves the division of society into several classes and statuses. Each status or class enjoys a particular position in the social hierarchy. However, all the statuses are related and inter-dependent. Changes in social stratification always lead to changes in statuses of persons belonging to various classes. 6\. Stratification is based on Social Values: In every society, the system of social stratification is based upon social values and traditions. In India caste has been the main basis of social stratification. However, in western societies class has been the basis of social stratification. The class-structure in every society is in turn based upon the prevailing social values. 7\. Social Stratification Restricts Interactions: In every society, the people stratified into different levels or classes are involved in interactions. However, the inter-class or inter-level interactions are always limited and defined by social norms. The persons belonging to a particular level have a similar social style and they do not fully interact with the person belonging to other levels. Social stratification defines and limits interactions among the people belonging to different social statuses or levels or classes. 8\. Possibility and Chances of Circulation or Change in the Position of Various Classes of Persons: No doubt, Social Stratification is very enduring and even permanent in nature; however it admits social mobility and change. Social elites keep on changing. These admit new members and discard some old members who suffer a loss of positions with the passage of time. Further, in every society there are social levels based upon economic position- the class of the rich, middle class and class of the poor however, the members of these classes can earn changes in their economic positions. The members of the rich class can become poor by suffering a loss of money a mixed stratification on the basis of the relation between Ascribed and Earned Statuses.