Page 67 - DSOC202_SOCIAL_STRATIFICATION_ENGLISH

Social Stratification

Notes However, political authority cannot have an absolute character as it represents people and their
interests and welfare.
Wealth, Property and Labour
Besides religious and political dimensions of stratification, economic rewards are also an important
criterion. Unequal economic returns are a principal means of controlling the entrance of persons
into positions and stimulating the performance of their duties. The amount of the economic return
therefore becomes one of the main indices of social status. As Max Weber has said that it is not
necessary that a position does bring power and prestige because it draws a high income. Rather,
it draws a high income because it is functionally important and the available personnel is for one
reason or another scarce.
The primary source of power and prestige is not income, but the ownership of capital goods
(including patents, goodwill and professional reputation). Consumer goods are not a cause of
social standing. The ownership of goods for production is a source of income, and the latter is thus
only an index, and not a determinant. However, income induces people to compete for the position.
Income made from one position may be transformed into making another position. But even then,
the initial economically advantageous status remains the key factor.
It cannot be denied that income beyond one’s needs may give rise to possession of capital wealth.
Such a possession becomes a reward for better management of one’s finances.
This can also give rise to inheritance, pure ownership and reward for the same. Stratification
emerges/evolves out of such a process of income generation and its management.
One kind of ownership of production goods consists in rights over the labour of others. Slavery,
serfdom, peonage, encomienda and indenture are examples of such an ownership of production
goods. This is also an example of an extreme nature of stratification, an unequal relationship.
Contrary to this may be contractual relationships. In between these two are traditional reciprocities,
which used to be a characteristic feature of India’s caste system and its jajmani relations.

Technical Knowledge
The positions which require great technical skill receive fairly high reward. This is to draw talent
and motivate training for highly skilled positions. However, technical position is subordinate to
religious, political and economic positions because it is concerned solely with means, and it is not
so great for integration of societal goods. Nevertheless, the distinction between expert and layman
in any social order is fundamental, and not reducible to other terms. Methods of recruitment and
reward acquire importance in all societies based on technical know-how. The opportunity for
acquisition of knowledge and skill/training may inhere as a sort of property right in certain
families and classes, given them power and prestige in consequence. Oversupply of trained
manpower may create unemployment. The monied classes may not allow surfacing of potentially
talented people. Artificial scarcity versus natural scarcity of skills and talents also may be seen at
times in the changing social order.
There is always a wide range of technical positions and persons. Specialization is the key to such
a differentiation.
There are also specialists with short-duration training and native capacity. However, the true
experts are scientists, engineers, and administrators, who have control over functionally important
positions. But, there are also limitations of knowledge and skills as a basis for performing social
functions. It is the society that grants prestige to the technical person.
The Davis-Moore theory, despite its generalized character, clearly states that there are many types
of stratified systems. These can be delineated according to certain modes of variation. These are :
(a) The degree of specialization
(b) The nature of functional emphasis

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