Page 15 - DSOC202_SOCIAL_STRATIFICATION_ENGLISH

Social Stratification

Notes Self-Assessment

Choose the correct options
1. Stratification is broadly categorised into
(a) Upper class (b) Middle class (c) Lower class (d) All of these
2. Class is subjective in character, being dependent upon class
(a) Awareness (b) Consciousness (c) Standard (d) None of these
3. Human Society is
(a) Homogeneous (b) Heterogeneous (c) Both a and b (d) None of these
4. The process by which individuals and groups are ranked in a more or less enduring hierarchy
of status is known as
(a) Social class (b) Stratification (c) Society (d) All of these
5. The ancient Greek society divided into
(a) Freemen (b) Slaves (c) Both a and b (d) None of these

1.3 Summary

• Social stratification is a universal phenomenon, an unavoidable feature of all human societies,
though found in different forms and degrees. Individuals, positions and groups are
differentiated based on specific norms and criteria in a given society. The norms and criteria
on the basis of which people are differentiated evolve over a period of time.
• The study of social stratification involves the understanding of ideology, structure and process
as parameters of inequality and its dynamics. Ideology implies values, norms and criteria on
the basis of which units are ranked as higher and lower, superior and inferior.
• The social criteria are the basis of the differential evaluation of units in a social system. These
are : kinship, personal qualities, achievements, possessions, authority, power, etc. The non-
social criteria are simply basis of differentiation. These are age and sex.
• Functional differentiation or division of labour is an unavoidable necessity for smooth
functioning of society. The functional divisions may be non-antagonistic grades evolved/
created for meeting the basic needs of a given human society. Custom differentiation refers
to the rules for differential proper behaviour. Competitive differentiation implies success
and failure of individual members in general or in a given context.
• There are different and numerous concrete forms of social stratification, such as economically
stratified, politically stratified, occupationally stratified. These are principal forms and
interrelated with each other.
• Inequality and stratification differ from each other to the extent that stratification is generally
based on normatively constructed principles and values, whereas inequality may have its
genesis in pre-given unchanging systems such as lineages and age-sets. Based on the sources
of social inequality, a demarcation can be worked out between stratification and inequality
or, in other words, between modern industrial societies and pre-industrial societies.
• “The owners merely of labour power, owners of capital, and landowners, whose respective
sources of income are wages, profit, and ground-rent, in other words, wage-labourers,
capitalists, and land-owners constitute the three big classes of modern society based on the
capitalist mode of production.”
• According to Marx, each period of history is characterized by a predominant mode of
production and based upon it is a class structure consisting of a ruling class and an oppressed
class, which could be seen as two strata of society. The struggle between these classes
determines the social relations between men and groups.

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