Page 278 - DSOC202_SOCIAL_STRATIFICATION_ENGLISH

Unit 13: Changing Dimensions of Social Stratification

2. What accounts for ethnic prejudice and discrimination? Notes
3. Why do ethnic antagonisms often centre upon “social differences”?
4. Are societies marked by a high degree of pluralism bound to remain unequal?

The Concept of Minorities
Another related concept is that of minorities, which are generally ethnic groups. Sociologically
speaking, a minority group as mentioned by Giddens is :
1. Its members are disadvantaged, as a result of discrimination against them by others.
2. Members of the minority have some sense of group solidarity, of “belonging together”.
3. Minority groups are usually to some degree physically and socially isolated from the larger
community.
In addition to these criteria, minority groups are always to some extent ethnically distinct from
the majority.
The number of members of a minority group may be politically significant, but socially and
culturally it may not be so. For example, Parsis, Jains, Sikhs, etc., are numerically not so
preponderant, but economically they are quite well-off, and are also ahead of other communities
in terms of education and socio-cultural awakening. Thus, the notion of a minority group is not
simply a statistical one, it is more of a sociological nature.
Defining Ethnicity
There is a long trajectory of discourse on ethnicity as it is a culturally specific conception of the
social world. As such, the idea of ethnicity is immanently transformative. Always, ethnicity is
related to some basic aspects of society such as language, religion, region and styles of life, etc.
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

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