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    Ocial Tratification: Society (NCERT, 2006)

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    Sonia Sabu
    The document discusses social stratification and different systems of stratification that have existed in human societies such as slavery, caste, estate, and class. It focuses on defining social stratification and the inequality of power and advantage that results from stratification systems. The document also provides details about caste stratification and how the caste system in India defined social positions based on birth and ascribed purity or pollution levels.

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    Ocial Tratification: Society (NCERT, 2006)

    Uploaded by

    Sonia Sabu
    13 views2 pages
    The document discusses social stratification and different systems of stratification that have existed in human societies such as slavery, caste, estate, and class. It focuses on defining social stratification and the inequality of power and advantage that results from stratification systems. The document also provides details about caste stratification and how the caste system in India defined social positions based on birth and ascribed purity or pollution levels.

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    SOCIAL STRATIFICATION

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    The document discusses social stratification and different systems of stratification that have existed in human societies such as slavery, caste, estate, and class. It focuses on defining social stratification and the inequality of power and advantage that results from stratification systems. The document also provides details about caste stratification and how the caste system in India defined social positions based on birth and ascribed purity or pollution levels.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    13 views2 pages

    Ocial Tratification: Society (NCERT, 2006)

    Uploaded by

    Sonia Sabu
    The document discusses social stratification and different systems of stratification that have existed in human societies such as slavery, caste, estate, and class. It focuses on defining social stratification and the inequality of power and advantage that results from stratification systems. The document also provides details about caste stratification and how the caste system in India defined social positions based on birth and ascribed purity or pollution levels.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
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    SOCIAL STRATIFICATION

    Social stratification refers to the


    existence of structured inequalities
    between groups in society, in terms of
    their access to material or symbolic
    rewards. Thus stratification can most
    simply be defined as structural
    inequalities between different
    groupings of people. Often social
    stratification is compared to the
    geological layering of rock in the earth’s
    surface. Society can be seen as
    consisting of ‘strata’ in a hierarchy, with
    the more favoured at the top and the
    less privileged near the bottom.
    Inequality of power and advantage
    is central for sociology, because of the
    crucial place of stratification in the
    organisation of society. Every aspect of
    the life of every individual and
    household is affected by stratification.
    Opportunities for health, longevity,
    security, educational success, fulfillment
    in work and political influence are all
    unequally distributed in systematic ways.
    Historically four basic systems of
    stratification have existed in human
    societies: slavery, caste, estate and
    class. Slavery is an extreme form of
    inequality in which some individuals
    are literally owned by others. It has
    existed sporadically at many times and
    places, but there are two major
    examples of a system of slavery; ancient
    Greece and Rome and the Southern
    States of the USA in the 18th and 19th
    centuries. As a formal institution,
    slavery has gradually been eradicated.
    But we do continue to have bonded
    labour, often even of children. Estates
    characterised feudal Europe. We do not
    enter into details about estates here but
    very briefly touch upon caste and class
    as systems of social stratification. We
    shall be dealing in greater detail with
    class, caste, gender as bases of social
    stratification in the book, Understanding
    Society (NCERT, 2006).
    Caste
    In a caste stratification system an
    individual’s position totally depends on
    the status attributes ascribed by birth
    rather than on any which are achieved
    during the course of one’s life. This is
    not to say that in a class society there
    is no systematic constraint on
    achievement imposed by status
    attributes such as race and gender.
    However, status attributes ascribed by
    birth in a caste society define an
    individual’s position more completely
    than they do in class society.
    In traditional India different castes
    formed a hierarchy of social precedence.
    Each position in the caste structure was
    defined in terms of its purity or
    pollution relative to others. The
    underlying belief was that those who
    are most pure, the Brahmin priestly
    castes, are superior to all others and
    the Panchamas, sometimes called the
    ‘outcastes’ are inferior to all other
    castes. The traditional system is
    generally conceptualised in terms of the
    four fold varna of Brahmins, Kshatriyas,
    Vaishyas and Shudras. In reality there are
    innumerable occupation-based caste
    groups, called jatis.
    The caste system in India has
    undergone considerable changes over
    the years. Endogamy and ritual

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