Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective: Chapter 12: Social Stratification

wealth, power, prestige

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 12: Social Stratification*... *Dimensions of Social Inequality* Max Weber (1946) delineated three basic criteria for measuring levels of social inequality: ___1___, ___2___, and ___3___... We should keep in mind that although ___1___, ___2___, and ___3___ are often interrelated, they can also operate independently.

wealth

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 12: Social Stratification*... *Dimensions of Social Inequality* Max Weber (1946) delineated three basic criteria for measuring levels of social inequality: _____, power, and prestige. First, people are distinguished from one another by the extent to which they have accumulated economic resources, or their _____... The extent of economic inequality varies from society to society... It is important to note the close correlation between income and level of education, particularly among the wealthier nations of the world. --------------- *Definition* _____ - The material objects that have value in a society.

power

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 12: Social Stratification*... *Dimensions of Social Inequality* Max Weber (1946) delineated three basic criteria for measuring levels of social inequality: wealth, _____, and prestige... A second dimension of social inequality, according to Weber, is _____, which he defined as the ability to achieve one's goals and objectives even against the will of others... Where does _____ reside in the United States? According to our democratic ideology, _____ is in the hands of the people... Although this is how it works in theory, the picture is quite different in real life... As early as the 1950s, C. Wright Mills (1956) insisted that _____ was concentrated in the hands of a _____ elite comprising corporate, government, and military leaders. Since then William Domhoff (2013) has arrived at a similar conclusion... According to Mills and Domhoff, the concentration of real _____ in the hands of an elite in the United States has remained constant for much of the nation's history. However, over the past several decades, _____ in America has been increasingly concentrated in the hands of the _____ elite, reflected in the subtitles of Domhoff's master work, Who Rules America? --------------- *Definition* _____ - The capacity to produce intended effects for oneself, other people, social situations, or the environment.

prestige

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 12: Social Stratification*... *Dimensions of Social Inequality* Max Weber (1946) delineated three basic criteria for measuring levels of social inequality: wealth, power, and _____... The third dimension of social stratification, according to Weber's formulation, is _____, the social esteem, respect, or admiration that a society confers on people... Research indicates that occupations in the United States carry different levels of _____ and that those rankings remained remarkably stable throughout the twentieth century (Coleman and Rainwater 1978; Hodge, Treiman, and Rossi 1966; Nakao and Treas 1990; National Opinion Research Center 1996)... Essentially, four factors separated the occupations at the top from those at the bottom during the twentieth century. The occupations at the top end offer higher salaries, require more education, offer greater autonomy (less supervision), and require more abstract thinking and less physical labor. Since the year 2000, there has been some rearranging of occupational _____ in the United States, according to popular opinion surveys. --------------- *Definition* _____ - Social honor or respect within a society.

Pluralism, Assimilation, Legal protection of minorities, Population transfer, Long-term subjugation, Genocide

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 12: Social Stratification*... *Forms of Intergroup Relations* Some racial and ethnic groups live together in peace and with a high degree of social equality. In most situations, however, racial and ethnic groups tend to experience varying levels of conflict and inequality. How racial and ethnic groups relate to one another can be viewed as a continuum ranging from cooperation to outright hostility. George Simpson and J. Milton Yinger (1985) identified six major forms of interracial and interethnic relations, arranged from most humane to least humane: 1. ___1___... 2. ___2___... 3. ___3___... 4. ___4___... 5. ___5___... 6. ___6___... It is important to note that these ways of classifying racial and ethnic relations are not mutually exclusive. More than one classification can exist in a society at the same time.

Genocide

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 12: Social Stratification*... *Forms of Intergroup Relations*... 1. Pluralism... 2. Assimilation... 3. Legal protection of minorities... 4. Population transfer... 5. Long-term subjugation... 6. _____. Sometimes the symbols of race and ethnicity can be so powerful that they cause people to engage in _____: mass annihilation of groups of people. The most notorious example, of course, is Hitler, who during World War II sent more than six million people (Jews, Gypsies, Slavs, homosexuals, and others he considered to be subhuman) to be killed in death camps. More recently, there have been many other examples of _____ from around the world that, though involving fewer deaths, are just as inhumane... ...for much of the twenty-first century, hundreds of thousands of people in Darfur have been massacred by the Sudanese government while world leaders debate whether anything should be done because they cannot agree on the meaning of _____. Although widely condemned by most people in the world, _____ is still used by some groups as a way to gain political advantage. --------------- *Definition* _____ - The systematic annihilation of entire cultures or racial groups.

Long-term subjugation

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 12: Social Stratification*... *Forms of Intergroup Relations*... 1. Pluralism... 2. Assimilation... 3. Legal protection of minorities... 4. Population transfer... 5. _____. In some parts of the world, racial and ethnic minorities have been politically, economically, and socially repressed for indefinite periods of time. Until the changes in the mid-1990s, the repression of blacks under the apartheid system in the Republic of South Africa was an example of the long-term institutionalized (legal) repression of one ethnic and racial group by another... 6. Genocide.

Population transfer

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 12: Social Stratification*... *Forms of Intergroup Relations*... 1. Pluralism... 2. Assimilation... 3. Legal protection of minorities... 4. _____. One solution to intergroup conflict is _____, which involves the physical removal of a minority group to another location. The forced relocation of 16,000 Cherokee Indians from North Carolina to Oklahoma in 1838 is a case in point. A more recent example from the United States, though a temporary situation, was the forced relocation of thousands of Japanese Americans into internment camps during World War II. Unfortunately, this particular form of intergroup relationship has been played out in many different places in the world in recent years... Often, these _____s cause enormous hardships both for those being moved and for the local people into whose territories they are arriving. 5. Long-term subjugation... 6. Genocide. --------------- *Definition* _____ - The physical relocation of a minority group from one area to another.

Legal protection of minorities

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 12: Social Stratification*... *Forms of Intergroup Relations*... 1. Pluralism... 2. Assimilation... 3. _____. In societies where racial and ethnic groups are hostile toward one another, the government may step in to legally protect the minority group. In Great Britain, the Race Relations Act makes it a criminal offense for anyone to express publicly any sentiments that might lead to racial or ethnic hostility. In the United States, three constitutional amendments (the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth), several civil rights laws, and a number of executive directives have provided legislative and administrative protection to minorities over the past decades. 4. Population transfer... 5. Long-term subjugation... 6. Genocide.

Assimilation

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 12: Social Stratification*... *Forms of Intergroup Relations*... 1. Pluralism... 2. _____. _____ occurs when a racial or ethnic minority is absorbed into the wider society. The many Asian and Pacific ethnic groups that have peacefully and voluntarily assimilated into Hawaiian society over the past several centuries are an example. 3. Legal protection of minorities... 4. Population transfer... 5. Long-term subjugation... 6. Genocide. --------------- *Definition* _____ - The process of the wider society absorbing a racial or ethnic group.

Pluralism

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 12: Social Stratification*... *Forms of Intergroup Relations*... 1. _____. In this situation two or more groups live in harmony with one another while each retains its own ethnic heritage, pride, and identity. Swiss society—composed of Germans, Swiss Germans, French, and Italians living together peacefully, if not always amicably—is a good example of _____. 2. Assimilation... 3. Legal protection of minorities... 4. Population transfer... 5. Long-term subjugation... 6. Genocide.

per capita gross national income

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 12: Social Stratification*... *Global Stratification* This chapter has looked at social stratification—that is, how societies are made up of different groups that are ranked relative to one another in terms of wealth, power, and prestige. Not only are people stratified relative to one another within a society, but societies (nation-states) are also stratified relative to one another. In much the same way that we can identify upper-, middle-, and lower-class people within a society, it is also possible today to speak of wealthy and powerful countries and poor and weak countries within the global system. If the world was not so intimately interconnected (and becoming more so with each passing year), we would be living in a world comprising many countries with simply different levels of wealth and power... Rather the decisions made in New York or Chicago today are having real effects, both positive and negative, on the status and personal wealth of people in Bangladesh. Perhaps the most concrete measure of global stratification is based on differential levels of wealth. One of the more common ways of measuring national wealth is by using the _____ (GNI) index (see Table 12.3). This measure is calculated by adding the output of goods and services in a country to the incomes of residents and dividing by the total population... Consequently, factory (sweatshop) workers in poor countries (who may be eleven years old and earning less than $2.00 per day) are working so that people in North America can jog in Nike running shoes and wear the latest fashions from the Gap, Banana Republic, or Old Navy. Another way of looking at the worldwide inequity between the many nations of the world is to consider two stunning facts reported in 2016 (Rogers 2016: 51). First, the richest 1 percent of the world's population now has as much wealth as the rest of the world combined. And, second, the wealthiest 62 people in the world own as much as the bottom half of the world's population, comprised of 3.5 billion people. Moreover, this worldwide level of inequality is accelerating in recent years, particularly since the world mega-recession that began in 2008. For example, there were 1,826 billionaires in 2015, up from 1,536 (or up 19 percent) in the previous year. These enormous inequities in wealth found throughout the world have important social consequences. First, poor countries have the highest birth rates and the lowest life expectancies... Second, in terms of health, poorer countries have higher infant mortality, more children born underweight, and a lower life expectancy... And third, wealthy countries have near universal education and most adults are functionally literate, but this is not the case in the poorer countries. Thus, we can see the profound differences (in terms of mortality, health, sanitation, education, and population size) between the rich countries and the poor countries within the global system of the twenty-first century... *Summary*... 10. Just as individuals are stratified within a society, so too are nation-states stratified within the world system. Wealthy countries, which can have hundreds of times more wealth than poor countries, have better systems of education and health care and their citizens have longer life expectancies. --------------- *Definition* _____ - A commonly used index of relative wealth among nations calculated by adding the output of goods and services in a country to the incomes of residents and dividing by the total population.

ethnic group

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 12: Social Stratification*... *Racial and Ethnic Stratification*... Those sharing similar cultural characteristics are said to belong to the same _____. --------------- *Definition* _____ - A group of people who share many of the same cultural features.

race

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 12: Social Stratification*... *Racial and Ethnic Stratification*... Those sharing similar physical traits are often defined as belonging to the same _____. --------------- *Definition* _____ - A subgroup of the human population whose members share a greater number of physical traits with one another than they do with members of other subgroups.

functionalism/functional theory, conflict theory

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 12: Social Stratification*... *Theories of Stratification* The unequal distribution of wealth, power, and prestige appears to be a fundamental characteristic of most societies, particularly those with complex, highly differentiated economies... The basic question is: Why is inequality a nearly universal trait of social life? The debate among social scientists, which at times has been heated, revolves around two conflicting positions that are based on different philosophical assumptions and have distinct political implications. The more conservative position, the ___1___, holds that social stratification exists because it contributes to the overall well-being of a society. The more liberal ___2___ argues that society is always changing and in conflict because individuals in the upper stratum use their wealth, power, and prestige to exploit those below them.

bourgeoisie, proletariat

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 12: Social Stratification*... *Theories of Stratification*... *The Conflict Theory Interpretation*... Writing during the latter stages of the industrial revolution in Europe, Marx saw the classic struggle occurring between the ___1___ (those who owned the means of production), and the ___2___ (the working class who exchanged their labor for wages).

bourgeoisie

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 12: Social Stratification*... *Theories of Stratification*... *The Conflict Theory Interpretation*... Writing during the latter stages of the industrial revolution in Europe, Marx saw the classic struggle occurring between the _____ (those who owned the means of production), and the proletariat (the working class who exchanged their labor for wages). --------------- *Definition* _____ - Karl Marx's term for those who own the means of production.

proletariat

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 12: Social Stratification*... *Theories of Stratification*... *The Conflict Theory Interpretation*... Writing during the latter stages of the industrial revolution in Europe, Marx saw the classic struggle occurring between the bourgeoisie (those who owned the means of production), and the _____ (the working class who exchanged their labor for wages). --------------- *Definition* _____ - The term used in the conflict theory of social stratification to describe the working class who exchange their labor for wages.

Functionalists versus Conflict Theorists

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 12: Social Stratification*... *Theories of Stratification*... *_____* (Functionalists versus Conflict Theorists) Functionalists and conflict theorists—with their radically different interpretations of social inequality—have been locking horns for years... Although there is truth in both of these interpretations, neither theory can be used exclusively to explain the existence of all types of stratification systems... In short, functional integration is real, but so is conflict. Not only do the functionalist and conflict theories represent two contrasting interpretations of social inequality, but they also have radically different policy implications for modern society. The functionalist view implies that social stratification systems should be maintained because the best-qualified people, through the competitive process, will be motivated to fill the top positions. In contrast, conflict theory implies that social inequality should be minimized or eliminated because many people in the lower strata never have a chance to develop their full potential. Thus, the functionalist position would want the government to take no action (such as welfare programs or a progressive income tax) that would redistribute wealth, power, or prestige. Conflict theorists would call for exactly the opposite course of action, arguing that eliminating barriers to social mobility would unleash the hidden brilliance of those currently living in the underclasses... *Summary*... 9. There are two conflicting interpretations of social stratification. The functionalist theory emphasizes the integrative nature of stratification systems, pointing out how class systems contribute to the overall well-being of a society by encouraging constructive endeavors. Conflict theorists believe that stratification systems exist because the upper classes strive to maintain their superior position at the expense of the lower classes.

rank

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 12: Social Stratification*... *Types of Societies* Following the lead of Morton Fried (1967), most anthropologists distinguish three types of societies based on levels of social inequality: egalitarian, _____, and stratified societies... *_____ Societies* _____ have unequal access to prestige and status but not unequal access to wealth and power. In _____ societies, there is usually a fixed number of high-status positions, which only certain individuals are able to occupy... Even though the chiefs in a _____ society possess great prestige and privilege, they generally do not accumulate great wealth; their basic standard of living is not noticeably different from that of an ordinary person... He maintains his privileged position as chief not by virtue of his capacity to impose his will on others but because of his generosity. Examples of _____ societies are found in most areas of the world, but most prominently in Oceania and among Native Americans of the northwest coast of North America. --------------- *Definition* _____ societies - Societies in which people have unequal access to prestige and status but not unequal access to wealth and power.

The Conflict Theory Interpretation

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 12: Social Stratification*... *Theories of Stratification*... *_____* (The Conflict Theory Interpretation) Whereas the functionalist view starts with the assumption of social order, stability, and integration, conflict theorists assume that the natural tendency of all societies is toward change and conflict. According to this theory, stratification exists because the people who occupy the upper levels of the hierarchy are willing and able to use their wealth, power, and prestige to exploit those below them... This conflict theory of social stratification is derived largely from the late-nineteenth-century writings of Karl Marx, who, unlike the functionalists, did not view stratification systems as either desirable or inevitable... Because they control the means of production, the small capitalist class exerts significant influence over the larger working class... Thus, according to the classic Marxist view, the capitalists create a false consciousness among the workers by leading them to believe that if they are not successful, it is because they have not worked hard enough rather than because their opportunities for advancement were blocked by the powerful upper class. As long as the workers accept this ideology legitimizing the status quo, the inequities of the stratification system will continue to exist. Believing that class conflict is inevitable, Marx predicted that eventually the proletariat would recognize both the extent of its own exploitation and its collective power to change it. When the workers develop a class consciousness, he asserted, they will revolt against the existing social order, replace capitalism with communism, and eliminate scarcity, social classes, and inequality.

The Functionalist Interpretation

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 12: Social Stratification*... *Theories of Stratification*... *_____* (The Functionalist Interpretation) By stressing the integrative nature of social systems, functional anthropologists argue that stratification exists because it benefits the society... Although the functionalist view seems plausible, it has weaknesses. First, some critics of the functionalist position point out that stratified societies do not always give the greatest rewards to those who fill the most vital positions. Rock singers, baseball players, and movie stars often make many times more money than teachers, pediatricians, and U.S. Supreme Court justices. Second, the functionalists do not recognize the barriers that stratification systems put in the way of certain segments of the society, such as members of low-prestige and low-power groups... Third, the functionalist position tends to make a fundamentally ethnocentric assumption. That is, the functionalists assume that people in all societies are motivated by the desire to maximize their wealth, power, and prestige. In actual fact, however, a number of societies emphasize the equitable distribution of social rewards rather than rewarding individuals for amassing as much as possible for themselves.

functionalism/functional theory

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 12: Social Stratification*... *Theories of Stratification*... The basic question is: Why is inequality a nearly universal trait of social life?... The more conservative position, the _____, holds that social stratification exists because it contributes to the overall well-being of a society. --------------- *Definition* _____ - A theory of social stratification that holds that social inequality exists because it is necessary for the maintenance of society.

conflict theory

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 12: Social Stratification*... *Theories of Stratification*... The basic question is: Why is inequality a nearly universal trait of social life?... The more liberal _____ argues that society is always changing and in conflict because individuals in the upper stratum use their wealth, power, and prestige to exploit those below them. --------------- *Definition* _____ - A theory of social stratification that explains social inequality as the result of benefits derived by the upper classes using their power and privilege to exploit those below them.

egalitarian, rank, stratified

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 12: Social Stratification*... *Types of Societies* Following the lead of Morton Fried (1967), most anthropologists distinguish three types of societies based on levels of social inequality: ___1___, ___2___, and ___3___ societies... *Summary* 1. Social ranking is an important feature found to one degree or another in all societies. The degree to which societies distribute wealth, power, and prestige on an equitable basis can be used to distinguish among three different types of societies: ___1___, ___2___, and ___3___. 2. ___1___ societies are unstratified in that they allocate wealth, power, and prestige fairly equally. In ___2___ societies, which are partially stratified, people have equal access to power and wealth but not to prestige. The most completely ___3___ societies are those based on classes or castes and that have unequal access to wealth, power, and prestige.

egalitarian

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 12: Social Stratification*... *Types of Societies* Following the lead of Morton Fried (1967), most anthropologists distinguish three types of societies based on levels of social inequality: _____, rank, and stratified societies... *_____ Societies* In _____ societies, which are located at the low end of the inequality continuum, no individual or group has appreciably more wealth, power, or prestige than any other... In an _____ society, the number of high-status positions for which people must compete is not fixed... Thus the number of high-status positions in an _____ society is constantly changing to reflect the number of qualified candidates. In other words, everyone, depending on her or his personal skill level, has equal access to positions of esteem and respect. _____ societies are found most readily among geographically mobile food collectors, such as the Ju/'hoansi of the Kalahari region, the Inuit, and the Hadza of Tanzania (see Figure 12.2). There are logical reasons why wealth, power, and prestige would be discouraged among nomadic foragers. First, the nature of a nomadic existence inhibits the accumulation of large quantities of personal possessions. Second, because foragers do not hold claims to territory, individuals can forage in whatever areas they please... Finally, food collectors tend to be _____ because sharing maximizes their chances for adaptation... Generosity in such societies is expected, and attempts to accumulate possessions, power, or prestige are ridiculed. --------------- *Definition* _____ societies - Societies that recognize few differences in status, wealth, or power.

Racial and Ethnic Stratification

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 12: Social Stratification*... *_____* (Racial and Ethnic Stratification) The discipline of anthropology has as its primary goal to study the extraordinary physical and cultural diversity found among the world's population... People are often characterized on the basis of their distinctive physical characteristics or their learned cultural traits... Throughout history, and in many parts of the world, racial and ethnic differences have led to inequality, discrimination, antagonism, and in some cases violence... ...even in the United States—a country constitutionally and legally committed to social equality—racial and ethnic differences still greatly affect relationships between groups and their relative positions in the social hierarchy. The terms race and ethnicity are sometimes used synonymously in everyday speech, but they have different meanings to anthropologists. Technically, a race is an interbreeding population whose members share a greater number of traits with one another than they do with people outside the group... Race, then, is no more than a statistical statement about the occurrence of physical traits... Because different populations have been interbreeding for thousands of years, a continuum of human physical types has resulted. The widespread use of DNA evidence has been a major reason for the success of such TV shows as CSI, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, Burden of Proof, and Bones. Today, however, DNA testing is also being used as an effective mechanism for teaching university students a central concept about race; that is, racial groups or categories, as we normally define them, are not pure, mutually exclusive biological entities, but rather are arbitrary and socially constructed... A major problem with racial classifications is that the schemes differ depending on the traits on which they are based. For example, it would be possible to categorize all of the world's people based on skin color. But if those same people were categorized according to body stature, many people would be assigned to different categories. Each physical trait is biologically determined by distinct genes that vary independently of one another... Although no one ever has, we could divide the world's population into two major races: those with attached earlobes and those with detached earlobes... Taking such a position, however, would make as much scientific sense as basing it on any other physical characteristic, such as skin color. As a scientific concept, then, race is not terribly significant because it gives us little insight into human behavior. Nevertheless, because of the way people interpret physical differences, race is important socially... Whereas race involves physical traits, ethnicity involves cultural traits that are passed on from generation to generation. These cultural traits may include religion, dietary practices, language, humor, clothing, cultural heritage, folklore, national origins, and a shared ancestry and social experience. Members of an ethnic group perceive themselves as sharing these (and perhaps other) cultural characteristics. Moreover, ethnic group members have a sense of ethnic identity whereby they define themselves and members of their group as "us" and everyone else as "them." The European Union (EU), an economic, political, and cultural alliance of most western European nations, is an interesting microcosm of modern ethnicity... Ethnic groups are more than mere social entities based on shared cultural origins; rather, ethnic groups exist because of their shared social experiences over time... In some cases certain groups are both racially and ethnically distinct from their neighbors. For example, some Native Americans, such as the Zuni, have distinctive physical features and identify themselves strongly using their native language, political organizations, family networks, and cultural practices. Other groups, such as Greek Americans, may be physically indistinguishable from the majority but form their own distinctive (and usually exclusive) social clubs and social networks.

Chapter 12: Social Stratification

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *_____* (Chapter 12: Social Stratification)... An important distinguishing characteristic of societies is the degree to which individuals have equal access to wealth, power, and prestige.

stratified

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 12: Social Stratification*... *Types of Societies* Following the lead of Morton Fried (1967), most anthropologists distinguish three types of societies based on levels of social inequality: egalitarian, rank, and _____ societies... *_____ Societies* Unlike rank societies, which are unequal only in terms of prestige, _____ societies are characterized by considerable inequality in all forms of social rewards (power, wealth, and prestige). The political, economic, and social inequality in _____ societies is both permanent and formally recognized by the members of the society... Although distinctions in wealth, power, and prestige began to appear in the early Neolithic period (approximately 10,000 years ago), the emergence of truly _____ societies is closely associated with the rise of civilization approximately 5,500 years ago... As a general rule, the greater the role specialization in a society, the more complex is its system of stratification... *Summary*... 3. _____ societies, which are associated with the rise of civilization, range from open class societies, which permit high social mobility, to more rigid caste societies, which allow for little or no social mobility. Class societies are associated with achieved status—positions that an individual can choose or at least have some control over. Caste societies, on the other hand, are based on ascribed statuses into which one is born and which cannot change. --------------- *Definition* _____ societies - Societies characterized by considerable inequality in all forms of social rewards—that is, power, wealth, and prestige.

soft money

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 12: Social Stratification*... *Types of Societies*... *Stratified Societies*... *Class Societies* Even though the boundaries between social strata in a class society are not rigidly drawn, social inequalities nevertheless exist. A social class is a segment of a population whose members share similar lifestyles and levels of wealth, power, and prestige. The United States is a good example of a class society (see Table 12.2)... The capitalist class in the United States, comprising approximately 1 percent of the population, consists of old wealth (Carnegies, Rockefellers), corporate executives, and owners of lucrative businesses; their incomes derive largely from returns on assets such as stocks, bonds, securities, and real estate. The ownership of the means of production by the capitalist class affords them the power over jobs for the rest of society. In addition, their control of the media largely shapes the nation's consciousness. Because they are the main source of _____ contributions to political campaigns, they exert enormous influence over national politics. Primarily because of the rapid development of the postindustrial economy, the number of people in the upper class has increased in recent decades. Moreover, the size of their incomes has grown much faster than for any other class... The upper-middle class, comprising about 14 percent of the U.S. population, is made up of business and professional people who have high incomes and considerable amounts of overall wealth. This is the class that is most shaped by education... The middle class, constituting approximately 30 percent of the population, is made up of hardworking people of modest income, such as small entrepreneurs, teachers, nurses, civil servants, and lower-level managers... Comprising approximately 30 percent of the population, members of the working class hold occupations that tend to be fairly routine and closely supervised and usually require no more than a high school education (blue-collar and some white-collar jobs). Included in this category are factory workers, sales clerks, construction workers, office workers, and appliance repairpeople... The working poor, about 13 percent of the population, barely earn a living at unskilled, low-paying, unpleasant, and often temporary jobs with little security and frequently no benefits. They tend to be undereducated, and even though some may have completed high school, others are functionally illiterate... The underclass occupies the lowest rung of U.S. society. Some have suggested that the underclass actually represents the people who are beneath the class structure, a type of caste-like group that has little or no chance of ever making it to the next rung of the social ladder. The underclass are unemployed (or severely underemployed), are homeless, and often suffer from substance abuse and in some cases mental illness. They are almost always confined to blighted urban areas plagued by violence, gangs, and drugs. One of the most visible traits of members of the underclass is homelessness (see Figure 12.3)... With the bursting of the real estate bubble and the dramatic rise in unemployment in the United States starting in 2008, the number of homeless people has grown substantially. Most of the newly homeless people are not chronic members of the underclass, but rather working-class people who have lost their jobs and lost their homes through foreclosure... These are the "invisible citizens" who are caught between (1) unemployment or underemployment on the one hand, and (2) ineligibility for welfare programs on the other. Is the class system in the United States changing? If we examine the years since World War II, the relationship among the different classes has gone through two distinct periods. According to Dennis Gilbert (2008), the period from 1945 until 1975 was a time of "shared prosperity" in which class differences were shrinking. Since 1975, however, there has been a marked expansion of class disparities... In recent decades, and particularly since the great recession of 2008, U.S. society has experienced not only a widening gap between the rich and the poor, but also an erosion of the middle class. Owing to the fact that, as a result of the recession, many middle-class Americans have lost jobs, houses, retirement savings, and general financial security, many in the middle class are losing the fight against downward mobility... Nowhere was the U.S. class structure more dramatically demonstrated than in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in September 2005... The growing inequity in earnings is most dramatic at the highest levels. The compensation of CEOs in the United States increased 600 percent between 1980 and 2000, whereas earnings at the middle were rising slowly and those at the bottom were actually shrinking... Not only has money been concentrated increasingly in the hands of the capitalist class in recent decades, but so has political power. In fact, money is intimately interconnected with political power and influence. The largest contributors to political campaigns in the United States are, not surprisingly, the wealthiest... The capitalist class has played an increasingly prominent role in the political decision-making process through direct financial contributions (either individually or as representatives of corporations) to political campaigns. Some nonaffluent Americans protest that the wealthy actually buy members of Congress through their limitless campaign donations. This is not technically correct, however, because they only rent members of Congress for as long as they stay in office... But they also exert vast influence (well beyond their numbers) by other means as well. First, members of the capitalist class are recruited for top-level positions in the federal government, such as cabinet posts and ambassadorships. Second, the capitalist class exerts untold pressure on all levels of government decision making through corporate lobbying efforts. Third, many policy planning groups (such as the Committee for Economic Development and the Business Council) and private foundations (Rockefeller and Ford) are funded and represented by members of the capitalist class. And finally, virtually all mass media (television, newspapers), which have enormous influence on public opinion and public policy, are owned and controlled by the capitalist class. Although many political pundits and social scientists have been aware of the growing political influence of the superwealthy in the United States, it has only been recently that the power of the affluent minority to influence U.S. public policy has been documented by Martin Gilens, professor of political science from Princeton, in his groundbreaking book, Affluence and Influence: Economic Inequality and Political Power in America (2012). By measuring key variables influencing 1,779 policy issues over two and a half decades, Gilens's finding demonstrate that our democratic institutions have a strong tendency to adopt public policies favored by the rich. In other words, when it comes to setting policy, the views of ordinary people essentially do not matter, while the views and attitudes of the wealthy and various corporations and business organizations matter a great deal. Not only is life at the top of the U.S. social hierarchy more opulent, prestigious, and influential, but it is also healthier and lasts longer... Why has inequality, particularly between the top and the middle strata of our society, grown so precipitously over the past four decades? We must point out that income inequality has occurred during this same period in other Western nations as well, but not as dramatically as it has in the United States. A combination of factors has been at work. First, the change from an industrial to a postindustrial society created a high demand for people with advanced training and education, most of whom are from the upper classes. At the same time many manufacturing jobs, on which the lower classes depend, have been moving abroad. Second, the influence of labor unions, which traditionally fought for higher wages for U.S. workers, has declined in recent decades. Third, current trends in family life (such as higher divorce rates and more people choosing to remain single) have led to more female-headed households, which tend to have lower family incomes. Fourth, the tendency for U.S. corporations to become leaner and meaner through "downsizing" has had its most negative effects on the lower-income groups. Fifth, the gap between the haves and the have-nots widened as a result of the substantial tax cuts during the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, which had the effect of helping the wealthy far more than the rest of the population. Sixth, our nation's broken immigration policy encourages more unskilled foreign workers to enter the country, thereby putting downward pressure on the (already low) wages of the U.S. labor force. And finally, the political system failed to keep the minimum wage ahead of inflation. Our national mythology includes the belief that the United States offers a good deal of social mobility. Although it is possible to cite a number of contemporary Americans who have attained great wealth, power, and prestige from modest beginnings, studies of social class in the United States have shown that most people remain in the class into which they are born and marry within that class as well. In many cases a child's physical and social environment greatly influences his or her career opportunities and identification with a particular class... Members of the same social class share not only similar economic levels but also similar experiences, educational backgrounds, political views, memberships in organizations, occupations, and values. In addition, studies of social class have shown, not surprisingly, that members of a social class tend to associate more often with one another than with people in other classes. In other words, a person's life chances, though not determined, are very much influenced by social class. --------------- *Definition* _____ - A form of political contribution not covered by federal regulation, which works to the advantage of wealthy candidates and their benefactors.

varnas

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 12: Social Stratification*... *Types of Societies*... *Stratified Societies*... *Class Societies*... *Caste Societies*... *Hindu Caste System* Caste societies can be found in a number of regions of the world, such as among the Rwandans in Central Africa, but the best-known—and certainly the best-described—example of the caste system is in Hindu India. Hinduism's sacred Sanskrit texts rank all people into four categories, called _____, which are associated with certain occupations. --------------- *Definition* _____ - Caste groups in Hindu India that are associated with certain occupations.

jati

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 12: Social Stratification*... *Types of Societies*... *Stratified Societies*... *Class Societies*... *Caste Societies*... *Hindu Caste System*... According to a Hindu myth of origin (see Mandelbaum 1970), the four major varnas originated from the body of primeval man. The highest caste, the Brahmins (priests and scholars), came from his mouth; the Kshatriyas (warriors) emanated from his arms; the Vaishyas (tradesmen) came from his thighs; and the Shudras (cultivators and servants) sprang from his feet. Each of these four castes is hierarchically ranked according to its ritual purity. Below these four castes—and technically outside the caste system—is still another category, called the Untouchables or, literally, outcasts... Ideally, all of Hindu India is hierarchically ranked according to these four basic castes. In practice, however, each of these four categories is further subdivided and stratified. To add to the complexity of the Indian caste system, the order in which these subcastes are ranked varies from one region to another. These local subgroups, known as _____, are local family groups that are strictly endogamous. All members of a _____, who share a common social status, are expected to behave in ways appropriate for that _____... The members of each _____ maintain its corporateness in two ways: first, through egalitarian socializing with members of their own _____; and second, by scrupulously avoiding any type of egalitarian socializing (such as marriage or sharing of food) with members of other _____. Although the prohibitions against social intercourse among castes are rigidly defined, the amount of interdependence among local castes should not be overlooked. This interdependence is largely economic in nature rather than social. --------------- *Definition* _____ - Local subcastes found in Hindu India that are strictly endogamous.

Sanskritization

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 12: Social Stratification*... *Types of Societies*... *Stratified Societies*... *Class Societies*... *Caste Societies*... *Hindu Caste System*... Even though intercaste mobility has always been limited in India, there are increasing instances in recent years of people moving up the caste ladder. The process, known as _____, involves taking on the behaviors, practices, and values associated with the Brahmin caste, such as being a vegetarian, giving large dowries for daughters, and wearing sacred clothing associated with Brahmins. According to Pauline Kolenda (1978), people accomplish this type of upward mobility by acquiring considerable wealth and education, migrating to other parts of the country, or becoming political activists. The process of _____ is motivated less by the desire to imitate higher-caste values and behavioral patterns than it is an expression of dissatisfaction with the lack of social mobility and socioeconomic deprivations of the caste system. An important tenet of Hindu religious teachings is reincarnation—the notion that at death a person's soul is reborn in an endless sequence of new forms. The caste into which people are born is considered to be their duty and responsibility for that lifetime. Hindu scripture teaches that the good life involves living according to the prescriptions of the person's caste... In other words, people believe that their caste status is determined by how they behaved in former lives and that their present behavior determines their caste status in future lives. --------------- *Definition* _____ - A form of upward social mobility found in contemporary India whereby people born into lower castes can achieve higher status by taking on some of the behaviors and practices of the highest (Brahmin) caste.

Dalit

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 12: Social Stratification*... *Types of Societies*... *Stratified Societies*... *Class Societies*... *Caste Societies*... *Hindu Caste System*... The Untouchables, who are confined to the lowest and most menial types of work, such as cleaning latrines or leather working, are considered so impure that members of the four legitimate castes must avoid all contact with them. Today, this lowest caste prefers the term _____, which means literally the crushed or oppressed people (see Figure 12.5). --------------- *Definition* _____ - The politically correct term for those formerly called Untouchables in India.

European Gypsies (Roma)

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 12: Social Stratification*... *Types of Societies*... *Stratified Societies*... *Class Societies*... *Caste Societies*... *_____* (European Gypsies (Roma)) A Diaspora of approximately 11 million people, the Roma (gypsies) of present-day Europe are a migratory version of Indian Untouchables... Wherever they arrived in Europe, they were met with hostility and discrimination... Up to the present time, the Roma remain an oppressed underclass, often living in squatter settlements, experiencing high levels of unemployment, and being denied adequate educational opportunities for their children... According to a recent World Bank report (World Bank 2016), inequalities between Roma and non-Roma are striking, particularly in terms of their lack of opportunity in the areas of housing, education, and health care, all of which prevent children from maximizing their potential, breaking the cycle of poverty, and living their adult lives in dignity. But the World Bank report argues that not only is working toward greater equality for the European Roma the moral and humane thing to do, but it is also smart economic policy. This is especially true in parts of eastern and central Europe where the working population is shrinking due to emigration, aging, and low fertility rates

social mobility

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 12: Social Stratification*... *Types of Societies*... *Stratified Societies*... *Class versus Caste* Social scientists generally recognize two different types of stratified societies: those based on class and those based on caste. The key to understanding this fundamental distinction is _____. In class systems, a certain amount of upward and downward _____ exists... Caste societies, on the other hand, have little or no _____. --------------- *Definition* _____ - The ability of people to change their social position within the society.

achieved status, ascribed status

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 12: Social Stratification*... *Types of Societies*... *Stratified Societies*... *Class versus Caste*... Another important distinction is how statuses (positions) within each type of society are allocated. Class systems are associated with an ___1___, whereas caste systems are associated with an ___2___. ___1___es are those that an individual chooses or at least has some control over... In contrast, a person is born into an ___2___ and has no control over it.

achieved status

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 12: Social Stratification*... *Types of Societies*... *Stratified Societies*... *Class versus Caste*... Class systems are associated with an _____, whereas caste systems are associated with an ascribed status. --------------- *Definition* _____ - The status an individual acquires during the course of her or his lifetime.

ascribed status

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 12: Social Stratification*... *Types of Societies*... *Stratified Societies*... *Class versus Caste*... Class systems are associated with an achieved status, whereas caste systems are associated with an _____. --------------- *Definition* _____ - The status a person has by virtue of birth.

Caste

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 12: Social Stratification*... *Types of Societies*... *Stratified Societies*... *Class versus _____* Social scientists generally recognize two different types of stratified societies: those based on class and those based on _____. The key to understanding this fundamental distinction is social mobility... *_____ Societies* In contrast to class societies, those that are based on _____ rank their members according to birth... _____ societies, wherever they may be found, have certain characteristics in common. First, _____ membership is directly related to economic issues such as occupation, workloads, and control of valuable resources... In short, the higher _____s have more resources and do less. Second, members of the same _____ share the same social status, largely because of their strong sense of _____ identity, residential and social segregation from other _____s, and uniformity of lifestyles. Third, _____ exclusiveness is further enhanced because each _____ has its own set of secret rituals, which tend to intensify group awareness. Fourth, the higher _____s are generally most interested in maintaining the _____ system for the obvious reason that they benefit from it the most... *Summary*... 6. Hindu India is often cited as the most extreme form of _____ society in the world. Social boundaries among _____s are strictly maintained by _____ endogamy and strongly held notions of ritual purity and pollution. The Indian _____ system, which has persisted for 2,000 years, has created an ideology enabling the upper _____s to maintain a monopoly on wealth, status, and power. --------------- *Definition* _____ - A rigid form of social stratification in which membership is determined by birth and social mobility is nonexistent.

Class, Caste, social mobility

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 12: Social Stratification*... *Types of Societies*... *Stratified Societies*... *___1___ versus ___2___* Social scientists generally recognize two different types of stratified societies: those based on ___1___ and those based on ___2___. The key to understanding this fundamental distinction is ___3___... It is important to bear in mind that stratified societies cannot all be divided neatly into either ___1___ or ___2___ systems. In general, ___1___ systems are open to the extent that they are based on achieved statuses and permit considerable ___3___, and ___2___ systems tend to be closed to the extent that they are based on ascribed statuses and allow little or no ___3___, either up or down. Having made these conceptual distinctions, however, we must also realize that in the real world, ___1___ and ___2___ systems overlap.

Class

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 12: Social Stratification*... *Types of Societies*... *Stratified Societies*... *_____ versus Caste* Social scientists generally recognize two different types of stratified societies: those based on _____ and those based on caste. The key to understanding this fundamental distinction is social mobility... *Summary*... 4. The United States is often cited as a prime example of a _____ society with maximum mobility. Although our national credo includes a belief in the possibility of going from rags to riches, most people in the United States remain in the _____ into which they are born because social environment has an appreciable effect on a person's life chances. 5. For the past several decades, _____ inequality in the United States has increased, not decreased. The income gap between the upper and lower _____es has widened, and there has been an increasing concentration of political power in the hands of the capitalist _____. --------------- *Definition* _____ - A ranked group within a stratified society characterized by achieved status and considerable social mobility.

Race and Ethnicity in the United States

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 12: Social Stratification*... *_____* (Race and Ethnicity in the United States) Because individual states in the United States define race differently, attempting to compare the sizes of different racial groups is an exercise in futility. The task is further complicated by people of mixed race, such as Barack Obama, whose mother was a Caucasian from Kansas and whose father was Kenyan, or far more complicated situations involving citizens whose four grandparents are Italian, Cherokee, Mexican, and Chinese (see Figure 12.7). Because the current practice of U.S. census takers is to allow people with multiple ethnic and racial identities to check more than a single box, it is possible for a single person to be counted as "Caucasian," "Native American," "Hispanic," and "Asian." This situation is hardly inconsequential because statistics on race and ethnicity are used for many important purposes, such as assessing disparities in health, employment, education, civil rights protection, and determining which underrepresented minority groups qualify for special consideration for state and federally sponsored programs. Although each ten-year census attempts to measure racial representation in the country, the results should (at best) be taken with a grain of salt because of the myriad problems of both definition and categorization. Moreover, the categories used in census enumerations have changed over time... For much of the twentieth century, the United States was described as a large melting pot in which people from many cultural backgrounds merged into a homogeneous U.S. nationality. However, this image of mass cultural amalgamation does not match reality. Although significant numbers of individuals have broken out of their ethnic patterns, ethnic groups remain... This is not to say, however, that North Americans of mixed race do not often lose their ethnic identity after several generations. To ensure that their children do not lose their cultural identity, some foreign-born North Americans are encouraging their children to participate in cultural study tours of their countries of origin... Not only can ethnic groups maintain their identity within a pluralistic society, but the ethnic landscape is also constantly rearranging itself. New York City, over the past century, reflects this changing ethnic mosaic... According to a report titled "The Newest New Yorkers 2000" (New York City Department of City Planning 2000), seventeen distinct neighborhoods in the city have a majority of foreign residents... At the start of the twenty-first century, the fastest-growing ethnic category in the United States is really not an ethnic group at all. Referred to by the U.S. Census Bureau with the catchall term Hispanics, this rapidly growing segment of the U.S. population is composed of a number of different subcultural groups that share a common language... Coming from more than twenty different countries, many prefer to be identified by their former nationality (for example, Cubans, Mexicans, Guatemalans) rather than as Hispanics. Others prefer the term Latino, which we will use to refer to this large and complex group. However we choose to classify them, they are collectively changing the face of the country and are having an enormous impact on the nation's economy, politics, entertainment, and educational systems... Not only do they have numbers, but many Latinos are also making their mark on all aspects of U.S. culture... Yet not everyone in the United States has been willing to embrace this rapidly growing Latino presence. As part of the debate on immigration reform in the United States, many local communities are in favor of building a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border, denying the children of undocumented laborers the right to attend school, and enacting strong measures for deporting illegal immigrants. This backlash is based on myths about the Hispanic population. First, because of the widespread use of Spanish on signs in cities such as Los Angeles and Miami, many people assume that Latinos do not speak English or have no desire to learn it. But the rate of learning English for Latinos is approximately the same as for other immigrant groups, and in fact one-third of Latinos living in Los Angeles speak only English. Second, Latinos are sometimes viewed (erroneously) as not fully participating in the economy. However, Mexicans and Central Americans have a labor force participation rate of 62 percent, which exceeds the Anglo rate and far exceeds that of African Americans. Latinos generally are found doing the jobs that other Americans refuse to do: harvesting crops, making beds, landscaping, and doing construction-related work such as house framing, roofing, and masonry... And third, many mainstream Americans view recent migrants as "short-timers" who are interested only in making enough money to return home. But when asked in a national survey if they planned to stay permanently in the United States, more than 90 percent of the legal immigrants said yes (Pachon 1998). To be certain, some immigrants do return home, and others continue to send sizable portions of their income to relatives back home. But, like their European counterparts a century previous, most Latinos plant their roots and commit to becoming citizens... *Summary*... 7. Race is a classification of people based on physical traits, whereas ethnicity is a scheme based on cultural characteristics. Although the concept of race is not particularly meaningful from a scientific standpoint, it is important because people's ideas of racial differences have led to powerful systems of stratification and discrimination. Despite the globalization of world economies, ethnic group identity remains strong throughout the world.

Race and Intelligence

*Cultural Anthropology - Applied Perspective*... *Chapter 12: Social Stratification*... *_____* (Race and Intelligence) For much of the history of the United States, racial ideology has been used to justify the privileged positions of Caucasians (those of European ancestry) compared to African Americans and Native Americans. The concept of race, in other words, is used to suggest that non-Caucasians are biologically inferior to Caucasians in terms of ability, character, and particularly intelligence. To be certain, the United States is not alone in using racial ideology to justify exploiting minorities and indigenous populations... Yet, despite the considerable progress made in race relations in the United States over the past sixty years, substantial numbers of people still believe in the strong correlation between race and intelligence. Before the 1920s it was generally thought, even among those in the scientific community, that intelligence (innate, God-given mental ability) varied according to race. Immediately following World War I (after 1918), there was a chance for researchers to test the relationship between race and intelligence. As a way of determining who would be selected as officers in the military during the war, all inductees into the U.S. armed forces were given an "intelligence test" based on a format developed in France to diagnose learning problems in French schools. Because millions of test scores were available after the war, it seemed a relatively easy task to compare large numbers of blacks and whites to determine which racial group, in the aggregate, scored higher on these standardized tests. And as conventional wisdom would have predicted, white soldiers scored more than ten percentage points higher than black soldiers. Given the enormous sample size of this study, these data appeared to confirm the intellectual inferiority of black Americans. However, when these data were compared on two variables rather than one (geographic location and race), the results pointed to the exact opposite conclusion. Researchers found that blacks from northern states (which spent much more money on education per student than southern states) scored on average considerably higher than whites from southern states. These findings would suggest that what was being measured on these so-called "intelligence tests" was not some genetically based mental ability or abilities, but rather how well your local schools prepared you to answer the questions on the test... Despite these startling findings from the 1920s, intelligence tests have been used routinely in schools for nearly a century to determine which students receive the most enriching education (with the most demanding courses and the most qualified and highly motivated teachers) and which do not. Many professional educators and elected officials still believe that scores on intelligence tests predict success in school and success in adult life. As a result, they claim that schools should reserve the best resources, courses, and teachers for high test performers, because those with low test scores and with less innate capacity to learn have much less of a chance to succeed. The problem with this reasoning, however, is that it violates a basic scientific tenet—that is, confusing correlation with causation. It certainly is true that people who score high on intelligence tests also (1) do better in school, (2) are more likely to attend college, and (3) obtain jobs with higher pay in adulthood. This statement makes the correlation between intelligence test scores and these other three variables (that is, all four variables vary together)... For those who believe (erroneously) that intelligence tests actually measure a genetically based and immutable intelligence, there is no reason to expect that low test performers will ever be able to boost their achievement in school and beyond. But after nearly a century of administering intelligence tests to K-12 students in the United States, most researchers do not put much stock in intelligence tests as measures of some innate level of genetic intelligence. Intelligence tests are, however, accurate measures of how well individuals have mastered their mainstream cultural knowledge, or at least the cultural knowledge deemed important by those middle-and upper-middle-class psychologists who construct the test questions. Middle- and upper-class children, in other words, who share a cultural background with the authors of the tests, are likely to achieve higher scores than children who do not... *Summary*... 8. The exploitation and subjugation of minority populations throughout the world have often been justified by the assumption that racial and ethnic minorities are intellectually inferior to their majority populations. Despite the long-term use of intelligence tests in the United States, there is no convincing research to suggest that some populations are genetically more intelligent than any others.