SOCIAL

STRATIFICATION

by: S.E.SIVAM(19BLB1056)
LEARNING OUTLINE
1 INTRODUCTION
 definition
 Origin
 Causes
 Characteristics
2 IMPACT OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION
3 FORMS OF STRATIFICATION
 SOCIAL STRATIFICATION
 social stratification is a term used in the social science to
describe the relative social position of persons
  in a given social group category geographical region or
other social unit
  it derives from the latin stratum (plural strata parallel
horizontal layers)
  referring to a given societies categorisation of its people
into ranking of socioeconomic tiers
  based on factors like wealth income social status
occupation and power
 SOCIAL STRATIFICATION

 According to Raymond W. Murray

“Social stratification is a horizontal

division of society into “higher” and
“lower” social units.”
 SOCIAL STRATIFICATION
 According to GILBERT

social stratification is the division of

society into permanent groups or
categories linked with each other by
the relationship of Superiority and
subordination
 SOCIAL STRATIFICATION
 According to Lundberg

 a stratified society
is one marked by
inequality by differences among
people that are evaluated by them as
being lower and higher
 ORIGINS OF SOCIAL
STRATIFICATION

 Hunting and Gathering Societies

 Horticultural, Pastoral, and Agricultural
Societies
 Division of Labour and Job
Specialization
 Industrialized Societies

 The Improvement of Working Conditions

 Postindustrial Societies
 CAUSES OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION
 There are five basic point which give a clear idea about
the causes of social stratification:
1 Inequality
2 Conflict
3 Power
4 Wealth
5 instability
 CHARACTERISTICS OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION

Social stratification may have the following

Characteristics:
 Social stratification is universal

 Stratification is social

 It is ancient

 It is in diverse forms

 Social stratification is Consequential

 IMPACT OF STRATIFICATION ON OUR
LIFE

It leads to inequality regarding........

 Health sector
 Education
 Bounds individual action
 Specification of social role
 Societal law
 Whom will live or die
 HEALTH SECTOR
 Expensive healthcare facilities
 VIP culture
 Different treatment quality
 Discriminating attitude of care providers
 unequal distribution of clean water and
save environment in different zones of a
city
 EDUCATION
Different education system
Specific method of teaching
Outdated syllabus
Language conflicts
Leads to job discrimination
 BOUNDS INDIVIDUAL ACTION
 Different political affiliation
 Limit our opportunities to work

 Limit our perceptive

 Stereotyping

 Liabialization

 Stops one to ask question

 SPECIFICATION OF SOCIAL ROLE
 Mother bond to care for children
 Preferred specific profession like doctor engineers and
bankers
 Father bound to be earner

 Child are bound to respect their elders and parent

 SOCIETAL LAW

 Punishment amplification
 Traffic rules

 Bank policies

 Discrimination in journalism
 WHOM WILL LIVE OR DIE

 At time of flood protection of major cities

 In case of storage of any basic food item

 in case of protest lower political classes political agents

actually suffer
 For example

sinking Titanic
 Forms of Stratification

1. THE SLAVERY SYSTEM

2. THE ESTATE SYSTEM
3. THE CASTE SYSTEM
4. THE CLASS SYSTEM
THE SLAVERY SYSTEM
"It is an extreme form of inequality in which some individuals are
owned by others as their property."

 LT Hobhouse defined slave as a man whom law and custom regard as the
property of another. In extreme cases he is wholly without rights. He is in
lower condition as compared with freemen. The slaves have no political
rights he does not choose his government, he does not attend the public
councils. Socially he is despised. He is compelled to work

EXAMPLE:
Societies of the ancient world based upon slavery (Greek and Roman)
and southern states of USA in the 18th and19th centuries.

 according to H J Nieboer the basis of slavery is always economic because

with it emerged a kind of aristocracy which lived upon slave labour.
THE CASTE SYSTEM
 " A person's location in the social strata is ascribed by
birth rather than based on individual accomplishments.“

 The system is maintained through,

Endogamous Marriages:
Cultural rules requiring that people marry
only within their own group,
 Apartheid:

law that formalized strict racial segregation

THE CASTE SYSTEM
 This system of stratification is mostly prominent in India and
the Hindu religion
 , 1. The Brahmins (priests/teachers/healers) From the most pure

 2. The Kshatriyas (soldiers/warriors)

 3. The Vaishyas (traders/merchants)

 4. The Shudras (servants/labourers)

 5. The Untouchables (social outcastes/impure) To the least

pure.
THE CLASS SYSTEM
Industrial society gave rise to class based system of
Stratification
"It is based on a combination of ascribed and achieved
statuses."
 Usually synonymous with socioeconomic status, which
is one's social position as determined by income,
wealth, occupational prestige, and educational
attainment,
THE COMMON THREE-STRATUM
MODEL
 The upper class is the social class composed of those who are
wealthy, well-born, or both. They usually wield the greatest political
power

 The middle class is the most contested of the three categories

consisting of the broad group of people in contemporary society who
fall socioeconomically between the lower class and upper class.
Middle class workers are sometimes called white collar workers.

 The lower or working class is sometimes separated into those who

are employed as wage or hourly workers, and an underclass those
who are long-term unemployed and/or homeless, especially those
receiving welfare from the state Members of the working class are
sometimes called blue collar workers.
THE ESTATE SYSTEM
"The estate system is synonymous with Feudalism".

Characteristics of Feudal Estate:

 In the first place they were legally defined: each estate had a
status with legal rights and duties. privileges and obligations
 Secondly the estates represented a broad division of labor
and were regarded as having definite functions. The nobility
were ordained to defend all the clergy to pray for all and the
commons to provide food for all
 Thirdly the feudal estates were political groups. An
assembly of estates possessed political power.
 Thus the three estates clergy, Nobility and commoners
functioned like three political groups.