Identities, Status, Roles and Inequality

Part 6
• Social identity
• Social situations
• Social stratification
• Society ranking systems

• Other forms of inequality

 Social Identities
Human beings learn a complex set of cultural
categories for social interaction.

Social identities Statuses and Roles

 Social Statuses and Roles
• Anthropologists make a distinction between
status and roles.
• Social statuses are the categories of different
kinds of people who interact.
- Ascribed by birth, country of origin, gender, kinship,
race/ethnic belonging, occupation/profession, religion, etc.
• Social roles are the rules for action associated
with particular statuses.

 Status: the position

 Role: the appropriate behavior related to the position
 Social Roles
• Social roles are the rules for action associated
with particular statuses.
– The North American public tends to combine status
and role under one term: role.
– Here we are making a distinction between:
 Status: the position,
 Role: the appropriate behavior related to the
position.

Example: College presidents’ (a status) roles vary depending on the

status of people with whom they interact. Their behavior toward
students will differ from behavior toward trustees, but both
behaviors are part of their role.
 Social Situations
• Social situations are the settings in which
interaction takes place.
They include culturally defined places, times, objects, and events.
Social Situations
 Social Groups
• Social groups are organized collections of
individuals, often named if they are formal.

– The members of a group share an "inside" culture

and its members should interact with each other.
– Groups are organized internally and also link to
other groups.
Social Groups – Sub-cultures
 Social Groups
• Groups form around several principles.
– Kinship
– Ethnic
– Gender
– Common goals and interests
– One or several of the above
• Groups can also be organized around social
hierarchy.
 Social Networks
• Social networks include individuals with
whom people regularly interact, but are not
groups.

"Social messiness" affects

interaction.
Example: Traveling freely
and entering new social
situations where culture
is not fully shared
 Social Stratification
• Some degree of inequality, or imbalance of
power, is part of most human interaction.

• Social stratification is any form of inequality

characterized by regularly experienced unequal
access to valued economic resources and/or
prestige.

- Example: Article 22 Mixed Blood provides an example of social

stratification based on the culturally defined category, “race.”
 2 kinds of social stratification
CLASS
• Is a kind of social
stratification that restricts
individuals’ access to valued
resources and prestige
within a partially flexible
system.
• In class systems, social
mobility is possible
although usually difficult.
• Lower class, working class,
middle class, and upper
class
CASTE
• Is a system of stratification
that ranks people on the
basis of their birth.
• People are born into a caste
system at birth and cannot
move to higher rank =
permanent membership
• Intercaste marriage is
forbidden
 Social Stratification
• Anthropologists classify roughly societies into
three types:

 Egalitarian
 Rank
 Stratified
 Society Ranking Systems

Egalitarian societies
are ones that lack formal social stratification
although inequality based on age and gender
may occur.
 Egalitarian societies
• Hunter-gatherer societies are most likely to be
egalitarian.

Examples: The !Kung described in Articles 2 and 9 represent an

example of egalitarian societies as do the Guarani discussed in
Article 12.
 Society Ranking Systems

Rank societies
are ones in which there is unequal access to
prestige but not to valued economic resources.
 Rank societies
• Horticultural societies, including societies
characterized by big men, and in some cases chiefs,
fit this model.

Examples: Article 26
discusses societies in
which big men and chiefs
achieve prestige but
usually at the cost of
everything they own.
 Society Ranking Systems
• Stratified societies are marked by unequal
access both to prestige and valued economic
resources.

Stratified
societies are
defined by the
presence of class
and/or caste
inequality.
 Stratified societies
• Most complex societies, including agrarian and
industrialized states, fit into this type.