Page 65 - DSOC202_SOCIAL_STRATIFICATION_ENGLISH

Social Stratification

Notes distributing these rewards differentially according to positions. The rewards and their distribution
become a part of the social order, and thus give rise to stratification.
Rewards in a society are distributed to its members for securing essential services for things that
contribute to :
1. sustenance and comfort;
2. honour and diversion; and
3. self-respect and ego-expansion.
In any social system three kinds of rewards are generally given according to positions. In a sense,
the rewards are built into the positions. They consist in the rights associated with the position,
accomplishments or prerequisites.
‘’If the rights and prerequisites of different positions in a society must be unequal, then the society
must be stratified, because that is precisely what stratification means. Social inequality is thus an
unconsciously evolved device by which societies insure that the most important positions are
conscientiously filled by the most qualified persons. Hence, every society, no matter how simple
or complex, must differentiate persons in terms of both prestige and esteem, and must therefore
possess a certain amount of institutionalized inequality.”
The amount or type of inequality need not be the same in all societies. The explanation given by
Davis and Moore seems to be logically sound and apparently quite convincing. However, issues
such as the inevitability of social stratification, unconsciously evolved stratification as a device,
universality of stratification, etc., are debatable as they tend to support persistence of inequality.
We will take these later on.

Two Determinants of Positional Rank
The positions which carry the best reward and the highest rank are those that (a) have the greatest
importance for the society, and (b) require the greatest training or talent. The first factor concerns
function and is a matter of relative significance; and second concerns with means and is a matter of
scarcity.
Differential Functional Importance
Actually, less essential positions do not compete successfully with more essential ones. If a position
is easily filled, it need not be heavily rewarded, even though important. If a position is important
but hard to fill, the reward must be high enough to get it filled anyway. Functional importance is
therefore a necessary but not a sufficient cause of high rank being assigned to a position. If a
position is functionally unique, it is highly rewarded. This position may be such that other positions
are dependent on it.
Differential Scarcity of Personnel
All positions require some form of skill or capacity for performance. The incumbent of a given
position must accomplish certain things. For some positions, which require innate talents, the
persons who fill them are bound to be rare. In other case, talent is in abundance, but the training
process is long, costly and elaborate that relatively a few can qualify. Medical education is a fit
case of the long-drawn training and of its high cost. In case of abundance of talents and easy
training, not much reward would be there, and vice versa.

In two ways a person gets qualified – either through inherent capacity or through training.
Both are always necessary. The scarcity may lie primarily in one or the other a well as in
both.

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