Social stratification refers to a society's hierarchical arrangement of individuals and groups according to factors like wealth, income, occupation, education, and social prestige. It involves the classification of people into categories with varying access to resources and power. Major forms of stratification include primitive communalism, slavery, caste systems, and estates. Stratification exists due to various viewpoints including natural inevitability, structural functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism. Stratified systems have characteristics like social rankings that can change, life experiences that depend on social category, and slow changing social ranks over time.

1. Social Stratification
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2. What is social stratification?
 is a hierarchy of positions with regard to
economic production which influences the
social rewards to those in the positions.

3. In sociology and other
social sciences,
 social stratification refers to the
hierarchical arrangement of individuals into
divisions of power and wealth within a
society.

4. Stratification
 derives from the geological concept of strata
- rock layers created by natural processes.
 The term most commonly relates to the
socio-economic concept of class, involving
the "classification of persons into groups
based on shared socio-economic
conditions ... a relational set of inequalities
with economic, social, political and
ideological dimensions."

5. What is class?
 is large set of people regarded by themselves
or others as sharing similar status with
regard to wealth, power and prestige.

6. Major forms of stratification
 Primitive communalism
 Slavery
 Caste
 Estate

7. Primitive communalism
 characterized by a high degree of sharing and
minimal social inequality.

8. Slavery
 involving great social inequality and the
ownership of some persons by others.

9. Caste
 in which an individual is permanently
assigned to a status based on his or her
parents' status.

10. Estate
 in which peasants are required by law to work
land owned by the noble class in exchange for
food and protection from outside attacks.

11. Weber's three dimensions of
stratification (three-component
theory of social stratification)
 Class
 Party (Power)
 Status

12. Class
 A person's economic position in a society.
 (group) set of people with similar amounts of
income and wealth.

13. Party (Power)
 A person's ability to get their way despite the
resistance of others.
 (group) a set of people with similar amounts
of power.

14. Status
 A person's prestige, social honor, or
popularity in a society.
 (group) a set of people with similar social
prestige or positive regard from members of a
society.

15. Basic viewpoints why stratification
exists
 Natural inevitability
 Structural -functionalist
 Conflict
 Evolutionary
 Symbolic Interactionist

16. Natural inevitability
 suggests that inequality exists because of
natural differences in people's abilities and is
a just system.

17. Structural -functionalist
 states that stratification is useful to society
because it enhances stability and induces
members of the society to work hard.

18. Conflict
 suggests that stratification occurs through
conflict between different classes, with the
upper classes using superior power to take a
larger share of the social resources.

19. Evolutionary
 states that people will share enough
resources to ensure the survival of the group
until a surplus exists at which time power
determines how the surplus is distributed.

20. Symbolic Interactionist
 calls attention to the importance of symbolic
displays of wealth and power that influence
one's definition of self and the importance of
ideas in defining social situations.

21. Three characteristics of stratified
systems
1.) The rankings apply to social categories of
people who share a common characteristic
without necessarily interacting or identifying
with each other. The process of being ranked
can be changed by the person being ranked.
– Example: The way we rank people differently by
race, gender, and social class

22. Three characteristics of stratified
systems
2.) People's life experiences and opportunities
depend on their social category. This
characteristic can be changed by the amount
of work a person can put into their interests.
– Example: The greater advantage had by the son or
daughter of a king to have a successful life than
the son or daughter of a minimum-wage factory
worker, because the king has a greater amount of
resources than the factory worker — The use of
resources can influence others.

23. Three characteristics of stratified
systems
3.) The ranks of different social categories change slowly over time.
This has occurred frequently in the United States ever since the
American revolution. The U.S. Constitution has been altered
several times to contain rights for everyone.
– Examples:
 Thirteenth Amendment: Ended slavery in the United States
 Fourteenth Amendment: Gives African-Americans
citizenship in the United States
 Fifteenth Amendment: Ended the denial of suffrage based
on race
 Nineteenth Amendment: The United States government's
recognition of women's suffrage
 The Civil Rights Act of 1964: Ended racial segregation in
public places in the United States — Also extended the right
to vote

24. Social mobility
 is the movement of a person from one status
to another, either between generations or
within a person's adult career.

25. Structural mobility
 is mobility brought about by changes in the
stratification hierarchy for instance as society
becomes more technologically advanced.