SYG 2000: Lecture 19. Chapter 7: An Overview of Social Stratification

I.  social stratification: way rank large groups people into hierarchy accord to relative privileges

  A. every society stratifies its members: some have greater inequality than others

II. slavery: > common in agricult societies; least common among nomads (esp. hunter/gathers)

   A. causes: based on 3 factors:

     1. debt: in some cultures, creditors would enslave people who could not pay their debt

     2. crime: instead of being killed, a murderer/thief might be enslaved by victim’s family

     3. war: when one group conquered another, often enslaved some of the vanquished

       a. women: were the first people enslaved through warfare: valued for sex, reprod, labor

   B. trans-Atlantic slave trade: profit fuels transfer of unfree labor from Africa to New World

      1. profit: also underlies why states passed laws making slavery inheritable; ideology justifies

   C. slavery today:Sudan/Mauritania/Ivory Coast;not until 1980s illegal in first two,but continues

      1. children Dinka tribe in rural Sudan: work, don’t go school; parents dep on them tend cattle

      2. Arabs North Sudan: capture 1000s Dinka children/march 100s mi north/shoot if try escape

      3. Since civil war broke out 1980s: National Islamic Front (gov) insists slavery not exist

      4. U.S.: remains silent in face of outrage; yet hi schools raise $ to buy back fem/child slaves

III. caste: status is determined by birth and is lifelong; basis is ascribed status

  A. endogamy: marriage within their own group/prohibit intermarriage

  B. reduce contact b/ castes: elaborate rules @ ritual pollution, teaching contact pollutes superior

  C. India’s castes: exist 3000 yrs; 4 main;1000s subcastes/jati: specialize in occup, eg shoe repair

      1. Dalit: lowest caste/untouchables; if touch higher caste, that person becomes unclean

          a. shadow can contaminate: early morn/late day risky; when Dalits no allow some villages

          b. ablution: washing rituals required to regain purity for those contaminated

          c. Dalit children beaten: if try enroll in gov schools; violence block mobility untouchables

       2. formally abolish 1949: cent-old prac no easy elim; cont affect ceremonies birth/mar/death

IV. social class sys:>open, allow mobility unlike caste;base mainly $/mat possess-can be acquire

  A. other dif w/ caste: no laws specify occup at birth or ban marriage b/ classes

  B. fluidity/mobility: major force that drives people to go far in school and to work hard

V. gender: basis for stratification in every society in world; affects access good things in society

  A. men always on top: earnings always higher; female circumcision; 60% wld illiterate females

VI. global stratification: 3 wlds: 1st wld=indus cap nations; 2nd wld communist; 3rd wld=other

  A. soviet breakup 1989: made terms outdated; author use most indus, industrializing, least indus

  B. industrial: 16% wlds people/31% earth’s land

  C. industrializing:Brazil’s slums: child/adults swarm garbage dump find decay food  keep alive

     1. Brazilian police/death squads: murder some these children; 100s homeless child roam/beg

        a. with no effective social institutions to care for these children: one solution is to kill them!

   D. least industrialized nations: most are peasant farmers living on farms or villages

      1. distrib: 68% world’s people, but only 49% of Earth’s land; most live on less than $1000/yr

      2. most: no running water, indoor plumbing, access to trained physicians

      3. modern medicine: cut infant mortality, but not births, pop mushrooming