7.1 Systems of Social Stratification

 Systems of Social Stratification 7.1 

Compare and contrast slavery (including bonded labor), caste, estate, and class systems of social stratification. 

Some of the world’s nations are wealthy, others poor, and some in between. 

This division of nations, as well as the layering of groups of people within a nation, is called social stratification. 

Social stratification is one of the most significant topics we will discuss in this book. 

As you saw in the opening vignette, social stratification profoundly affects our life chances—from our access to material possessions to the age at which we die. 

Social stratification also affects the way we think about life.

 Look at the photo of the Mulleta family in Ethiopia. 

If you were a parent of this family, you would expect hunger to be a part of life and would not expect all of your children to survive. 

You would also be illiterate and would assume that your children would be as well. In contrast, if you are an average U.S. parent, you expect your children not only to survive but also to be well fed, not only to be able to read but also to go to college. 

You can see that social stratification brings with it not just material things but also ideas of what we can expect out of life.

The Mulleta family of Ethiopia, described in the opening vignette, displaying all of their possessions.

 Credit: Shawn G. Henry 

Social stratification is a system in which groups of people are divided into layers according to their relative property, power, and prestige.

 It is important to emphasize that social stratification does not refer to individuals. 

It is a way of ranking large groups of people into a hierarchy according to their relative privileges. 

It is also important to note that every society stratifies its members. 

Some societies have more inequality than others, but social stratification is universal. 

In addition, in every society of the world, gender is a basis for stratifying people. 

On the basis of their gender, people are either allowed or denied access to the good things offered by their society. 

Let’s consider four major systems of social stratification: slavery, caste, estate, and class.