Page 163 - DSOC202_SOCIAL_STRATIFICATION_ENGLISH

Social Stratification

Notes When people having differences in terms of these aspects of social life, and are ranked as higher
and lower or superior and inferior, ethnic stratification emerges as a social reality. The proponents
of ethnic stratification consider the idea of ethnicity as a functioning mode of organization.
Moderation of unequal conflicting ethnic segments is also an ongoing process. Structure and
process are thus ontological basis of ethnicity. The fact is that ethnicity is a question of emphasis.
To what extent one can stretch the criteria, namely, language and religion, to distinguish between
people as higher and lower ? If a situation becomes too rigid causing immobility and hardship,
anti-ethnic agitations and movements are organized to redress the cultural and social oppression
and discrimination.
Ethnicity is thus a set of cultural areas or complexes, and these are synonymous with ethnic
groups. Cultural representations, differences, boundaries, units/communities are created based
on ethnic criteria and divides. On the one hand, one can see cultural affinities, and on the other,
antipathies based on ethnic segregation. Such a situation is there because “I”/“we” and “other”
complex gets roots based on ethnic differences. There are different mechanisms and rationales of
ethnicity. A simple idealist approach to ethnicity is insufficient. A materialist (class) approach is
equally significant. However, ethnicity is not race. As we have discussed earlier that race is pre-
given, a natural hierarchy, generally based on the biological/physiological conception. And, the
concept of ethnicity is seen as a medium of expression of social relationship, and it is not an
immutable or static medium. Ethnicization is a cultural process, which explains ground conditions
or cultural meta-context and also ideology underlying ethnic stratification.
The studies of the Blacks and Whites in the USA imply both “racial” and “ethnic” dimensions of
stratification and inequality. More than the stratification aspect, ethnicity is used as a means of
identification. It is a way to know the “cultural other”. There is a Greek word -ethnos, which
means “people” or “nation”. In fact, ethnos referred to a range of situations in which a collectivity
of humans lived and acted together. Ethnicity and ethnicization as such become mechanisms of
distribution and redistribution of resources and opportunities in a given society. Ethnicity becomes
an issue in everyday discourse as the politics of group identification and advantage. Collective
interests and actions are geared to extract maximum share in societal resources. Such a situation
may also result into ethnic conflicts. In some societies the vulgarization of ethnic game has invited
“ethnic cleansing”. “Groupness” as characterized by “distinctive cultural traits” is thus another
way of defining ethnicity. The trajectory today implies from “race” to “culture” to “ethnicity”. The
word “tribe” is giving way to the use of the term “ethnic group”. Regional linguistic groups are
being labelled as “nations” or distinct cultural formations. The dimension of hegemony of the
dominant group or numerical strength of a given group vis-a-vis a small linguistic/regional entity
is referred to as majority-minority syndrome.
Ethnicization
F. Barth talks of ethnic groups and boundaries as “the cultural stuff”, and a processual phenomenon.
Barth relates ethnicity with boundaries of identification and differentiation between ethnic
collectivities. He refers to ethnicity as a materialist, individualist and narrowly instrumentalist
phenomenon. It has entered deep into politics, decision-making and goal orientation. The following
points may be noted in the context of ethnicity and ethnicization:
1. Cultural differentiation
2. Shared meaning
3. Not fixed or unchaning nature
4. Social identity – collective and individual
Thus, ethnic groups are characterized by self-perception, others’ perception, and participation in
shared activities. Some scholars consider ethnicity as both source of strength and conflict. Such a
dualism becomes the basis of its stability and change as a socio-cultural phenomenon.

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