cultural change

Introduction:
The way of entire livelihood system of human is culture. Thus, the changes which occur on particularly on social values, beliefs, traditions, customs, culture, art, etc are called cultural change.
Regarding cultural change, Kingsley Davis says, "Cultural change embraces all changes occurring in any branch of culture, including art, science, technology, philosophy, etc, as well as in the forms and rules of social organization". Whenever changes occurs in entire lifestyle of human, then can we only call it cultural change. It is concerned with the complete change in society.

Characteristics of cultural change:
1. Regular process
2. Change in whole life system and behavior.
3. Broad change
4. General law
5. Helpful in social change
6. Material and non-material change
7. Change in fooding and dreesing
8. Change in technology
9.Change in art, literature, language etc
10. mainly cultural change is affected by diffusion, adaptation and development activities.

Society

What is Society

Individual is the basic component of society. The interaction of individuals with each other gives birth to group. The social groups interact with each other and develop relationships with each other, leads to a society
The players in football or other games came together is not a society, but just an aggregate of people. Within the society there are patterns and groupings on the basis of likeness and differences. "Likeness" creates a chain of relations among the individuals having similarity in one or more conditions' like same profession, same residence, same caste, family and kinship, college, age, sex etc."
Consciousness of kind is developed and the people of similar interests are joined together rustling in the formation of various groups and categories.
Without difference in cultural conditions of a society the human life would have been monotonous and probably limited in which little change is predictable. The system of give and take relationship creates reciprocal roles in human life. These differences lead to variety of human behaviors and social division of labor; the process of specialization is developed.  Man is dependent on society for basic needs satisfaction i.e. food, protection, education, etc. There are societies on local as well as on national levels.

Meaning of Society

This term has been derived from a Latin word 'socious' that means association or companionship Thus society means 'A larger group of individuals, who are associative with each other'.

Definition of Society

Prof Wright: It is a system of relationships that exists among the individuals of the groups.
Linton: Any group of people who have lived and worked together long enough to get themselves organized and to think of themselves as a social unit with well defined limits".
A.W. Green: It is the largest group in which individual have relationships.
Maclver: It is a web of social relationship, which is always changing.
Adam Smith: Society is an artificial device of Natural economy.

Characteristics of Society - Sociology Notes

Following are the characteristics of society.

1. society is a largest human group.
2. It satisfies the needs of its members.
3. One of the characteristic of society is having sense of belonging and cooperation. It is more or less permanent association
4. It is abstract (Because social relationships can be felt and imagined and cannot be seen).
5. Everyone in society is dependent upon every other member.
6. It should be organized i.e. will be having division of labor.
7. It will be having likeness and differences. Due to these differences, variety in human behaviors and division of labor and specialization of roles is there.
8. "There is consciousness of kind." Among the members of society.
9. It is always changing.
10. It has its own means to survive.
11. It is a self-sufficient social system.
12. It lasts for a longer period of time than groups and communities.
13. It will form a social structure through social institutions i.e. family, education economic, political and religious institutions. These basic five institutions are found in all societies of the world.
14. One of the characteristic of society has its own culture.

Basis of Society

There are three major factors, which form the basis of society. These are as under:
1. Biological Factor This factor emphasizes that the people are grouped and associated with each other due to biological needs. This factor is pleading for the importance of biological factor for making a group or association.
2. Geographical Factor This is one of the important factors. It molds human behavior. Behavior represents the area. This factor is directing human behavior. It also gives limits for dos and don'ts. An individual is doing an activity or acting according to the geographical structure. The behavior of an individual is shaping according to the geographical condition 3. Socio-Cultural Factor This factor is highly responsible for making up human society. It controls the other two factors i.e. biological and geographical to a great extent. Culture gives structural aspect and social gives dynamism to that structure. Culture is the structural aspect and social is the functional aspect of society.

Composing Elements of Society

There are some elements, which compose a society. These elements are considered as essentials. These are given below:

1. Society is a big aggregate of people.
2. People are living together since very long.
3. The people are having sense of belonging to one another.
4. Society is more or less permanent association.
5. The people are having a common culture.

Aims of Society

Society is provided because of certain aims some of them are the following:

1. To develop social structure for the development of human beings. These human beings would be expected to act according to the same structure provided by the society.
2. The individuals are provided with liberties and privileges on one hand and duties and responsibilities on the other hand, to be performed in society.
3. Another aim is the social progress and social development of the people of the same society.

Following are the types of society

1. Static Society
2. Folk or Traditional Society
3. Modern Society
4. Nomadic Society
5. Sedentary Society
6. Gemeinschaft
7. Close society
8. Primitive Society
9. Rural Society
10. Urban society
11. Industrial Society
12. Secular Society
13. Sacred society

1. Static Society. A type of society that experiences little or no changes from one generation to another. A simple and non-literate society is considered to be static society. These kinds of societies remained so far thousands of years. Little changes are taking place in simple societies because of the transportation and communication systems, the spread of knowledge etc.
2. Folk or Traditional Society This is an ideal society having abstract model developed by Rovert Redfiled. A folk society is small, isolated, non-literate and homogeneous with s strong sense of group solidarity.
This has fewer social institutions, simple culture with old ways of life exists, old means of communication, slow social changes, and population is not much and homogeneous social life is found. There is no formal legal system.
3. Modern Society It is based on expansion of education, technology, and industry urban life. It has a complex culture. Heterogeneous social life is found.
4. Nomadic Society Nomadic societies have no permanent place of settlement. The people change their place with their luggage. They usually use camels, donkeys and other animals as a source of transportation. The cultural traditions have very forceful binding upon he members.
5. Sedentary Society It is opposite to nomadic, where people have permanent settlement in rural and urban areas.
6. Gemeinschaft Given by Ferdinand Tonnies a German sociologist, it is a German word means community. It is a generalized or ideal type of society in which social bonds are based on close personal ties of friendship, close association and kinship. It is closely approximated by rural agricultural societies.
7. Close society It refers to a social class is based primary on family status rather than personal abilities, capabilities and achievements. It is an intermediate form between an open class and a caste society system. The chances of achieved statuses are very limited in the fields of occupation, educational, religious, economic and political institutions. The chances of social mobility are lesser as compared to an open class.
8. Primitive Society One of the types of society refers to a non-literate one. The cultural environment controls the entire human activities. The culture has simple technology, cultural homogeneity and isolation from larger cultural influences.
9. Rural Society It is sparsely populated. The profession is mostly agriculture, can be called as agricultural society. They live in farmstead settlement. They are dispersed their farms. It. consists of less than 5000 populations. There is informal social system. The people have homogeneity in profession, dress, language and customs of social life is usually found, there is slow rate of change
10. Urban society Given by Robert Redfield Having a large heterogeneous population, complex division of labor, impersonal social relations, relation are also casual, secondary, complex and formal. There is formal social control. There is diversity in profession, education, religion etc.
11. Industrial Society It refers to a system of economic and social organism established by industrial revolution. Industrial society is characterized by the replacement of hand-made produce by the production of standardized automatic plants. Most of the people are engaged in non­agricultural occupations and professions in an industrial society. Interaction patterns are complex, secondary and formal. Economic activity is organized and there is a large scale manufacturing of goods. It is large modern political and social unit. Individual identity and social integration is related to the development of modern transportation and communication system. There is higher social mobility, division of labour, specialization and differentiation as compared to rural and folk societies.
12. Secular Society It is primarily a non-religious one in the sense that there is no official (state) religion. The example is USSR to a great extent. The extreme type of secular one is supposed to be highly unstable. Pragmatism is the cultural ethos of such a society. It is a heterogeneous one.
13. Sacred society This type of society is primarily homogeneous, integrated and stable. Human relationship and value systems are regarded as absolute, natural, rigid and fixed. Most of the societies of the "third" world countries could be placed under this category, although no society could come up to the ideal standard of such a sacred society. Religion is the cultural ethos of a sacred society. Societies at Makkah, Madina, and Vatican State etc. are the typical examples of sacred societies.

Social Change

Meaning of Social Change

Any alternation or modification that occurs in a situation over a time is called social change. It is the change in human interactions and inter-relations. If comes to change there are sources which are greatly responsible for change. The first source is unsystematic and unique factors day or night, climate, existence of people or groups. The second source is systematic factors like if we need sound development there must be a stable and flexible government and system as well as different social organization.

Definition of Social Change

There are some definitions by well-known sociologists
According to Mr. Mohammad Iqbal Chaudhry, It is the reorganization of society in terms of time and place.
Majumdar defined it as a mode or fashion either modified or replacing previous one in the life of individuals or in society.
Horton and Hunt defined it as a change in overall societal structure and relationship of a society.
Social change is the alternation or modification that takes place in a social structure or function of a society. It is the change in both material and non-material culture.

What is Planned Social Change

The term planned social change refers to the change in social setup; such change is already prepared, to bring positive change. For bringing planned social change positively, in any social setup or cultural trait change agent keeps different things in mind, such as: Community's social and cultural values, cultural traits, environment, human ecology, social set up and anthropological knowledge to study, custom and traditions, norms and values, folk ways and mores etc.
Planned social change can be brought in any field of institution or social life, such as health, education, food, population, drug addiction, attitude, behavior, politics and other social activities.
Change agent can play a significant role in bringing a change in some spheres of life. The first problem faced by change agents is that how to decide whether .or not some proposed changes would be beneficial for the target population. Surprisingly, this decision is not always easy to make. In certain cases, such as, where improved medical care is involved the benefits afford to the target group would seen to be unquestioned. We all feel sure that health is better than illness but even this may not always be true For instance, consider a public health innovation such as inoculation against disease Although, it would undoubtedly have a beneficial effect upon tree survival rate of a population, a reduction in the mortality rate, might be unforeseen consequences that would, in turn, produce new problems. Once, the inoculation program were begun the number of children surviving would probably increase. But if, the rate of food production could rot be proportionately increased, given the level of technology, capital and land resources possessed by the target population, then the death rate this time from starvation might rise to its previous level and perhaps even exceed it. In such a case the inoculation program would merely be changing the cause of death at least in long run. The point of this example is that even if a program of planned social change has beneficial, consequences in the short run a great deal of thought and investigation had been given to its effects over a long period of time.

A population's health can actually be harmed when foreign health car is introduced in to a culture with provision for other related customs. For instance:                       
In W. African rural community women traditionally continued to work in the fields during pregnancy. Then in an attempt to improve paralleled care, pregnant women were kept away from their work, but no substitute program of proper physical activities was introduced, the women actually suffered increased chances of all health and infant mortality rate.
Where the long-range consequences of a proposed cultural change are obviously detrimental, high chances of damages, change agents may determine that the change is not favorable to the community even if the people desire it. Accordingly, they would advise that the program be dropped.
To determine overall benefits of planned social changes: we must also understand the basic aspects of a society's culture, which will probably be influenced by such programs.

Resistance to Planned Change

It is clear that if even a target population is aware of the possible benefits and consequences of the proposed change, it is not always a simple task to get ready/convince the local people to accept an innovation or to change their behavior. Thus the local people reject the innovation, which become useless. Because of the uncertainty of acceptance and rejection, the future success or failure of a project of planned change is often difficult to ascertain. In other words, the mere physical installation of any kind of facilities is not sufficient to call the project successful. To be completely successful, the people for whom they were intended must actually use those new facilities.

The Difficulties of Instituting Planned Change

Before an attempt can be made at cultural innovation, the innovators must determine whether or not the target population is aware of the proposed planned changes benefits and consequences. In many situations where significant health problems exist, target population is not always aware of these problems. Their lack of awareness can become a major barrier to solving the problems.
For instance, Health workers face lot foe problems in convincing simply people that your illness was because of something wrong with your water's supply. Many people don't understand the nature of diseases and don't understand how can it be transmitted through an agent such as water supply.

Class System

Class System

The class system is universal phenomenon denoting a category or group of persons having a definite status in society which permanently determines their relation to other groups. The social classes are de facto groups (not legally or religiously defined and sanctioned) they are relatively open not closed. Their basis is indisputably economic but they are more than economic groups. They are characteristic groups of the industrial societies which have developed since 17th century. The relative importance and definition of membership in a particular class differs greatly over time and between societies, particularly in societies that have a legal differentiation of groups of people by birth or occupation. In the well-known example of socioeconomic class, many scholars view societies as stratifying into a hierarchical system based on occupation,economic status, wealth, or income.
According to Ogburn and Nimkoff a social class is the aggregate of persons having essentially the same social status in a given society. Marx defined class in terms of the extent to which an individual or social group has control over the means of production.In Marxist terms a class is a group of people defined by their relationship to the means of production.Classes are seen to have their origin in the division of the social product into a necessary product and a surplus product. Marxists explain history in terms of a war of classes between those who control production and those who actually produce the goods or services in society (and also developments in technology and the like). In the Marxist view of capitalism this is a conflict between capitalists (bourgeoisie) and wage workers (proletariat). Class antagonism is rooted in the situation that control over social production necessarily entails control over the class which produces goods -- in capitalism this is the exploitation of workers by the bourgeoisie. Marx saw class categories as defined by continuing historical processes. Classes, in Marxism, are not static entities, but are regenerated daily through the productive process. Marxism views classes as human social relationships which change over time, with historical commonality created through shared productive processes. A 17th-century farm labourer who worked for day wages shares a similar relationship to production as an average office worker of the 21st century. In this example it is the shared structure of wage labour that makes both of these individuals "working class."Maclver and Page defines social class as any portion of the community marked off from the rest by social status.Max Weber suggest that social classes are aggregates of individuals who have the same opportunities of acquiring goods, the same exhibited standard of living. He formulated a three component theory of stratification with social, status and party classes (or politics) as conceptually distinct elements.

• Social class is based on economic relationship to the market (owner, renter, employee, etc.)
• Status class has to do with non-economic qualities such as education, honour and prestige
• Party class refers to factors having to do with affiliations in the political domain

According to Weber a more complex division of labour made the class more heterogeneous.In contrast to simple income--property hierarchies, and to structural class schemes like Weber's or Marx's, there are theories of class based on other distinctions, such as culture or educational attainment. At times, social class can be related to elitism and those in the higher class are usually known as the "social elite".For example, Bourdieu seems to have a notion of high and low classes comparable to that of Marxism, insofar as their conditions are defined by different habitus, which is in turn defined by different objectively classifiable conditions of existence. In fact, one of the principal distinctions Bourdieu makes is a distinction between bourgeoisie taste and the working class taste.Social class is a segment of society with all the members of all ages and both the sexes who share the same general status.Maclver says whenever social intercourse is limited by the consideration of social status by distinctions between higher and lower there exists a social class

Characteristics of Social Class

A social class is essentially a status group. Class is related to status. Different statuses arise in a society as people do different things, engage in different activities and pursue different vocations. Status in the case of class system is achieved and not ascribed. Birth is not the criterion of status. Achievements of an individual mostly decide his status. Class is almost universal phenomenon. It occurs in all the modern complex societies of the world. Each social class has its own status in the society. Status is associated with prestige. The relative position of the class in the social set up arises from the degree of prestige attached to the status. A social class is relatively a stable group. A social class is distinguished from other classes by its customary modes of behaviour.
This is often referred to as the life-styles of a particular class. It includes mode of dress, kind of living the means of recreation and cultural products one is able to enjoy, the relationship between parent and children. Life-styles reflect the specialty in preferences, tastes and values of a class. Social classes are open- groups. They represent an open social system. An open class system is one in which vertical social mobility is possible. The basis of social classes is mostly economic but they are not mere economic groups or divisions. Subjective criteria such as class- consciousness, class solidarity and class identification on the on hand and the objective criteria such as wealth, property, income, education and occupation on the other hand are equally important in the class system. Class system is associated with class consciousness. It is a sentiment that characterizes the relations of men towards the members of their own and other classes. It consists in the realization of a similarity of attitude and behavior with members of other classes.
Sociologists have given three-fold classification of classes which consists of - upper class, middle class and lower class.Sorokin has spoken of three major types of class stratification -they are economic, political and occupational classes. Lloyd Warner shows how class distinctions contribute to social stability.Veblen analyzed the consumption pattern of the rich class by the concept of conspicuous consumption. Warner has classified classes into six types- upper-upper class, upper-middle class, upper-lower class, lower-upper class, the lower middle class and lower class. Anthony Giddens's three class model is the upper, middle and lower (working) class.

Caste System

Caste System

Caste is closely connected with the Hindu philosophy and religion, custom and tradition .It is believed to have had a divine origin and sanction. It is deeply rooted social institution in India. There are more than 2800 castes and sub-castes with all their peculiarities. The term caste is derived from the Spanish word caste meaning breed or lineage. The word caste also signifies race or kind. The Sanskrit word for caste is varna which means colour.The caste stratification of the Indian society had its origin in the chaturvarna system. According to this doctrine the Hindu society was divided into four main varnas - Brahmins, Kashtriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras.The Varna system prevalent during the Vedic period was mainly based on division of labour and occupation. The caste system owns its origin to the Varna system. Ghurye says any attempt to define caste is bound to fail because of the complexity of the phenomenon.

According to Risely caste is a collection of families bearing a common name claiming a common descent from a mythical ancestor professing to follow the same hereditary calling and regarded by those who are competent to give an opinion as forming a single homogeneous community. According to Maclver and Page when status is wholly predetermined so that men are born to their lot without any hope of changing it, then the class takes the extreme form of caste. Cooley says that when a class is somewhat strictly hereditary we may call it caste.M.N Srinivas sees caste as a segmentary system. Every caste for him divided into sub castes which are the units of endogamy whose members follow a common occupation, social and ritual life and common culture and whose members are governed by the same authoritative body viz the panchayat.According to Bailey caste groups are united into a system through two principles of segregation and hierarchy. For Dumont caste is not a form of stratification but as a special form of inequality. The major attributes of caste are the hierarchy, the separation and the division of labour.Weber sees caste as the enhancement and transformation of social distance into religious or strictly a magical principle. For Adrian Mayer caste hierarchy is not just determined by economic and political factors although these are important.

Main features of caste system

Caste system hierarchically divides the society. A sense of highness and lowness or superiority and inferiority is associated with this gradation or ranking. The Brahmins are placed at the top of the hierarchy and are regarded as pure or supreme. The degraded caste or the untouchables have occupied the other end of the hierarchy. The status of an individual is determined by his birth and not by selection nor by accomplishments. Each caste has its own customs, traditions practices and rituals.It has its own informal rules, regulations and procedures. The caste panchayats or the caste councils regulate the conduct of members. The caste system has imposed certain restrictions on the food habitats of the members these differ from caste to caste. In North India Brahmin would accept pakka food only from some castes lower than his own.

But he would not accept kachcha food prepared with the use of water at the hands of no other caste except his own. As a matter of rule and practice no individual would accept kachcha food prepared by an inferior casteman.The caste system put restriction on the range of social relations also. The idea of pollution means a touch of lower caste man would pollute or defile a man of higher caste. Even his shadow is considered enough to pollute a higher caste man. The lower caste people suffered from certain socio-religious disabilities. The impure castes are made to live on the outskirts of the city and they are not allowed to draw water from the public wells. In earlier times entrance to temples and other places of religious importance were forbidden to them. Educational facilities, legal rights and political representation were denied to them for a very long time. If the lower castes suffer from certain disabilities some higher caste like the Brahmins enjoy certain privileges like conducting prayers in the temples etc.There is gradation of occupations also. Some occupations are considered superior and sacred while certain others degrading and inferior. For a long time occupations were very much associated with the caste system. Each caste had its own specific occupations which were almost hereditary. There was no scope for individual talent, aptitude, enterprise or abilities. The caste system imposes restrictions on marriage also. Caste is an endogamous group. Each caste is subdivided into certain sub castes which are again endogamous.Intercaste marriages are still looked down upon in the traditional Indian society.

Functions of the caste system

The caste system is credited to ensure the continuity of the traditional social organization of India. It has accommodated multiple communities including invading tribes in the Indian society. The knowledge and skills of the occupations have passed down from one generation to the next. Through subsystems like Jajmani system the caste system promoted interdependent interaction between various castes and communities with in a village. The rituals and traditions promoted cooperation and unity between members of the different castes.

The dysfunctions

Caste system promoted untouchability and discrimination against certain members of the society. It hindered both horizontal and vertical social mobility forcing an individual to carry on the traditional occupation against his or her will and capacity. The status of women was affected and they were relegated to the background. The caste system divided the society into mutually hostile and conflicting groups and subgroups.

Dominant caste

This concept given by M.N Srinivas holds that a caste is dominant when it is numerically higher than the other castes. In the Mysore village he described the peasant Okkalinga composed of nearly half of the population made up of nineteenth jati group. The Okkalinga were the biggest land owner. The chief criteria of domination of a caste are

1. Economic strength
2. Political power
3. Ritual purity
4. Numerical strength

The dominant caste also wields economic and political power over the other caste groups. It also enjoys a high ritual status in the local caste hierarchy. The dominant caste may not be ritually high but enjoy high status because of wealth, political power and numerical strength. The presence of educated persons and high occupation rate also play an important role in deciding its dominance over other caste groupings. Sometimes a single clan of dominant caste controls a number of villages in areas. The dominant caste settle dispute between persons belonging to their own and other jati.The power of the dominant caste is supported by a norm discouraging village from seeking justice from area,govt official, court or police located outside the village. The members of the dominant caste particularly those from the wealthy and powerful families are representative of this village in dealing with the officials.

Purity and Pollution

The notions of purity and pollution are critical for defining and understanding caste hierarchy. According to these concepts, Brahmins hold the highest rank and Shudras the lowest in the caste hierarchy. The Varna System represents a social stratification which includes four varnas namely- Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas and Shudras.The Shudras were allocated the lowest rank of social ladder and their responsibilities included service of the three Varnas. The superior castes tried to maintain their ceremonial purity
Dumont holds the notion of purity and pollution interlinked with the caste system and untouchability.The hierarchy of caste is decided according to the degree of purity and pollution. It plays a very crucial role in maintaining the required distance between different castes. But the pollution distance varies from caste to caste and from place to place.
Dipankar Gupta observes that the notion of purity and pollution as Dumont observed is integrally linked with the institution of untouchability .But unlike untouchability the notion of purity and pollution is also a historical accretion. Over time this notion freed itself from its specific and original task of separating untouchables from the others and began to be operative at different planes of the caste system.
The concept of purity and pollution plays a very crucial role in maintaining the required distance between different castes. But the pollution distance varies from caste to caste and from place to place.

Theories of Stratification

Theories of Stratification

For centuries, sociologists have analyzed social stratification, its root causes, and its effects on society. Theorists Karl Marx and Max Weber disagreed about the nature of class, in particular. Other sociologists applied traditional frameworks to stratification.

Karl Marx

 

Karl Marx based his conflict theory on the idea that modern society has only two classes of people: the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The bourgeoisie are the owners of the means of production: the factories, businesses, and equipment needed to produce wealth. The proletariat are the workers.
According to Marx, the bourgeoisie in capitalist societies exploit workers. The owners pay them enough to afford food and a place to live, and the workers, who do not realize they are being exploited, have a false consciousness, or a mistaken sense, that they are well off. They think they can count on their capitalist bosses to do what was best for them.
Marx foresaw a workers’ revolution. As the rich grew richer, Marx hypothesized that workers would develop a true class consciousness, or a sense of shared identity based on their common experience of exploitation by the bourgeoisie. The workers would unite and rise up in a global revolution. Once the dust settled after the revolution, the workers would then own the means of production, and the world would become communist. No one stratum would control the access to wealth. Everything would be owned equally by everyone.
Marx’s vision did not come true. As societies modernized and grew larger, the working classes became more educated, acquiring specific job skills and achieving the kind of financial well-being that Marx never thought possible. Instead of increased exploitation, they came under the protection of unions and labor laws. Skilled factory workers and tradespeople eventually began to earn salaries that were similar to, or in some instances greater than, their middle-class counterparts.

Max Weber

Max Weber took issue with Marx’s seemingly simplistic view of stratification. Weber argued that owning property, such as factories or equipment, is only part of what determines a person’s social class. Social class for Weber included power and prestige, in addition to property or wealth. People who run corporations without owning them still benefit from increased production and greater profits.

Prestige and Property

Weber argued that property can bring prestige, since people tend to hold rich people in high regard. Prestige can also come from other sources, such as athletic or intellectual ability. In those instances, prestige can lead to property, if people are willing to pay for access to prestige. For Weber, wealth and prestige are intertwined.

Power and Wealth

Weber believed that social class is also a result of power, which is merely the ability of an individual to get his or her way, despite opposition. Wealthy people tend to be more powerful than poor people, and power can come from an individual’s prestige.

Example: Arnold Schwarzenegger enjoyed prestige as a bodybuilder and as an actor, and he was also enormously wealthy. When he was elected governor of California in 2004, he became powerful as well.

Sociologists still consider social class to be a grouping of people with similar levels of wealth, prestige, and power.

Davis and Moore: The Functionalist Perspective

Sociologists Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore believed that stratification serves an important function in society. In any society, a number of tasks must be accomplished. Some tasks, such as cleaning streets or serving coffee in a restaurant, are relatively simple. Other tasks, such as performing brain surgery or designing skyscrapers, are complicated and require more intelligence and training than the simple tasks. Those who perform the difficult tasks are therefore entitled to more power, prestige, and money. Davis and Moore believed that an unequal distribution of society’s rewards is necessary to encourage people to take on the more complicated and important work that required many years of training. They believed that the rewards attached to a particular job reflect its importance to society.

Melvin Tumin

Sociologist Melvin Tumin took issue with Davis and Moore’s theory. He disagreed with their assumption that the relative importance of a particular job can always be measured by how much money or prestige is given to the people who performed those jobs. That assumption made identifying important jobs difficult. Were the jobs inherently important, or were they important because people received great rewards to perform them?
If society worked the way Davis and Moore had envisioned, Tumin argued, all societies would be meritocracies, systems of stratification in which positions are given according to individual merit. Ability would determine who goes to college and what jobs someone holds. Instead, Tumin found that gender and the income of an individual’s family were more important predictors than ability or what type of work an individual would do. Men are typically placed in a higher social stratification than women, regardless of ability. A family with more money can afford to send its children to college. As college graduates, these children are more likely to assume high-paying, prestigious jobs. Conversely, people born into poverty are more likely to drop out of school and work low-paying jobs in order to survive, thereby shutting them off from the kinds of positions that are associated with wealth, power, and prestige.

Social Stratification & Characteristics

Social Stratification

Differentiation is the law of nature. It is true in the case of human society. Human society is not homogeneous but heterogeneous. Men differ from one another in many respects. Human beings are equal as far as their bodily structure is concerned. But the physical appearance of individuals, their intellectual, moral, philosophical, mental, economic, political and other aspects are different. No two individuals are exactly alike. Diversity and inequality are inherent in society. Hence, human society is everywhere stratified.

All societies arrange their members in terms of superiority, inferiority and equality. The vertical scale of evaluation, this placing of people in layers is called stratification. Those in the top stratum have more power, privilege and prestige than those below. Thus, stratification is simply a process of interaction of differentiation whereby some people come to rank higher than others are.

Definition of Social Stratification:

According to Ogburn and Nimkoff ''The process by which individuals and groups are ranked in a more or less enduring hierarchy of status is known as stratification".

Gisbert says, "Social stratification is the division of society into permanent groups of categories linked with each other by the relationship of superiority and sub-ordination"

Melvin M. Tumin defines social stratification and refers to arrangement of any social group or society into a hierarchy of positions that are unequal with regard to power, property, and social evolution and of psychic gratification".

According to Lundberg, "A stratified society is one marked by inequality by differences among people that are evaluated by them is being 'lower' and 'higher'.

According to Raymond W. Murry ''Social stratification is a horizontal division of society into 'higher' and lower' social units".

Characteristics of Social Stratification:

According to M.M..Tumin the main attributes of stratification are follows".

1. It is Social:

Stratification is social in the sense it does not represent biologically caused inequalities. It is true that such factors as strength, intelligence, age and sex can often serve as the basis of strata are distinguished. But such differences by themselves are not sufficient to explain why some statuses receive more power, property and prestige than others. Biological traits do not determine social superiority and inferiority until they are socially recognized and give importance. For example the manager of an industry attains a dominant position not by his strength nor by his age but by having the socially defined traits. His education, training skills, experiences, personality, character etc. are found to be more important than his biological qualities.

Further as Tumin has pointed out, the stratification system

(i) is governed by social norms and sanctions,

(ii) is likely to be unstable because it may be disturbed by different factors and

(iii) is intimately connected with the other system of society such as practical family, religious, economic, education and other institutions.

2. It is Ancient:

The stratification system is quite old. According to historical and archaeological records, stratification was present even in the small wandering bands. Age and sex were the main criteria of stratification then, women and children last was probably the dominant rule of order. Difference between the rich and poor, powerful and humble, freemen and slaves was there in almost all the ancient civilizations. Ever since the time of Plato and Kautilya social philosophers have been deeply concerned with economic, social and political inequalities.

3. It is Universal

The stratification system is a worldwide phenomena. Difference between the rich and the poor or the 'haves' and the 'have nots' is evident everywhere. Even in the non-literate societies stratification if very much present. As Sorokin has said, all permanently organized groups are stratified.

4. It is in Diverse Forms:

The stratification system has never been uniform in all the societies. The ancient Roman society was stratified into two strata-the partricians and the plebians. The ancient Aryan society into four Varnas the Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and the Sudras, the ancient Greek society into freemen and slaves, the ancient Chinese society into the mandarins, merchants, farmers and the soldiers and so on. Class, caste and estate seem to be the general forms of stratification to be found in the modern world. But stratification system seems to be much more complex in the civilized societies.

5. It is Consequential:

The stratification system has its own consequences. The most important, most desired, and often the scarcest things in human life are distributed unequally because of stratification. The system leads to main kinds of consequences.

(i) Life chances and

(ii) Life-style refers to such things as infant mortality, longevity, physical and mental illness, childlessness, marital conflict, separation and divorce. Life-styles include such matters as the mode of housing residential area, ones education means or recreation relationship between the parents and children, the kind of books, magazines and TV shows to which one is exposed ones mode of conveyance and so on. Life chances are involuntary while life-styles reflect differences in preferences tastes and values.