This document provides an overview of social stratification. It defines social stratification as the division of society into ranked groups based on factors like wealth, income, power and occupation. The document discusses the origins of stratification in hunting and gathering societies and its evolution in agricultural societies. It examines the causes of stratification such as inequality, conflict and power dynamics. Different forms of stratification are outlined including slavery, caste systems and class-based systems. The impacts of stratification on access to healthcare, education and social roles are also summarized.

1. SOCIAL
STRATIFICATION
by: S.E.SIVAM(19BLB1056)

2. LEARNING OUTLINE
1 INTRODUCTION
 definition
 Origin
 Causes
 Characteristics
2 IMPACT OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION
3 FORMS OF STRATIFICATION

3. SOCIAL STRATIFICATION
 social stratification is a term used in the social
science to describe the relative social position of
persons
 in a given social group category geographical
region or other social unit
 it derives from the latin stratum (plural strata
parallel horizontal layers)
 referring to a given societies categorisation of its
people into ranking of socioeconomic tiers
 based on factors like wealth income social status
occupation and power

4.  According to Raymond W. Murray
“Social stratification is a horizontal
division of society into “higher”
and “lower” social units.”
SOCIAL STRATIFICATION

5.  According to GILBERT
social stratification is the division of
society into permanent groups or
categories linked with each other
by the relationship of Superiority
and subordination
SOCIAL STRATIFICATION

6.  According to Lundberg
a stratified society is one marked
by inequality by differences
among people that are evaluated
by them as being lower and higher
SOCIAL STRATIFICATION

7. ORIGINS OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION
 Hunting and Gathering Societies
 Horticultural, Pastoral, and Agricultural
Societies
 Division of Labour and Job
Specialization
 Industrialized Societies
 The Improvement of Working Conditions
 Postindustrial Societies

8. CAUSES OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION
 There are five basic point which give a clear idea
about the causes of social stratification:
1 Inequality
2 Conflict
3 Power
4 Wealth
5 instability

9. CHARACTERISTICS OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION
Social stratification may have the following
Characteristics:
 Social stratification is universal
 Stratification is social
 It is ancient
 It is in diverse forms
 Social stratification is Consequential

10. IMPACT OF STRATIFICATION ON OUR LIFE
It leads to inequality regarding........
Health sector
Education
Bounds individual action
Specification of social role
Societal law
Whom will live or die

11. HEALTH SECTOR
Expensive healthcare facilities
VIP culture
Different treatment quality
Discriminating attitude of care
providers
unequal distribution of clean water and
save environment in different zones of
a city

12. EDUCATION
Different education system
Specific method of teaching
Outdated syllabus
Language conflicts
Leads to job discrimination

13. BOUNDS INDIVIDUAL ACTION
 Different political affiliation
 Limit our opportunities to work
 Limit our perceptive
 Stereotyping
 Liabialization
 Stops one to ask question

14. SPECIFICATION OF SOCIAL ROLE
 Mother bond to care for children
 Preferred specific profession like doctor engineers
and bankers
 Father bound to be earner
 Child are bound to respect their elders and parent

15. SOCIETAL LAW
 Punishment amplification
 Traffic rules
 Bank policies
 Discrimination in journalism

16. WHOM WILL LIVE OR DIE
 At time of flood protection of major cities
 In case of storage of any basic food item
 in case of protest lower political classes political
agents actually suffer
 For example
sinking Titanic

17. Forms of Stratification
1. THE SLAVERY SYSTEM
2. THE ESTATE SYSTEM
3. THE CASTE SYSTEM
4. THE CLASS SYSTEM

18. THE SLAVERY SYSTEM
"It is an extreme form of inequality in which some individuals
are owned by others as their property."
 LT Hobhouse defined slave as a man whom law and custom
regard as the property of another. In extreme cases he is wholly
without rights. He is in lower condition as compared with
freemen. The slaves have no political rights he does not choose
his government, he does not attend the public councils. Socially
he is despised. He is compelled to work
EXAMPLE:
Societies of the ancient world based upon slavery (Greek and
Roman) and southern states of USA in the 18th and19th
centuries.
 according to H J Nieboer the basis of slavery is always economic
because with it emerged a kind of aristocracy which lived upon
slave labour.

19. THE CASTE SYSTEM
 " A person's location in the social strata is ascribed
by birth rather than based on individual
accomplishments.“
 The system is maintained through,
Endogamous Marriages:
Cultural rules requiring that people
marry only within their own group,
 Apartheid:
law that formalized strict racial
segregation

20. THE CASTE SYSTEM
 This system of stratification is mostly prominent in India
and the Hindu religion
 , 1. The Brahmins (priests/teachers/healers) From the
most pure
 2. The Kshatriyas (soldiers/warriors)
 3. The Vaishyas (traders/merchants)
 4. The Shudras (servants/labourers)
 5. The Untouchables (social outcastes/impure) To the
least pure.

21. THE CLASS SYSTEM
 Industrial society gave rise to class based system
of Stratification
"It is based on a combination of ascribed and
achieved statuses."
 Usually synonymous with socioeconomic status,
which is one's social position as determined by
income, wealth, occupational prestige, and
educational attainment,

22. THE COMMON THREE-STRATUM
MODEL
 The upper class is the social class composed of those who
are wealthy, well-born, or both. They usually wield the greatest
political power
 The middle class is the most contested of the three categories
consisting of the broad group of people in contemporary
society who fall socioeconomically between the lower class
and upper class. Middle class workers are sometimes called
white collar workers.
 The lower or working class is sometimes separated into those
who are employed as wage or hourly workers, and an
underclass those who are long-term unemployed and/or
homeless, especially those receiving welfare from the state
Members of the working class are sometimes called blue
collar workers.

23. THE ESTATE SYSTEM
"The estate system is synonymous with Feudalism".
Characteristics of Feudal Estate:
 In the first place they were legally defined: each estate
had a status with legal rights and duties. privileges and
obligations
 Secondly the estates represented a broad division of
labor and were regarded as having definite functions.
The nobility were ordained to defend all the clergy to
pray for all and the commons to provide food for all
 Thirdly the feudal estates were political groups. An
assembly of estates possessed political power.
 Thus the three estates clergy, Nobility and commoners
functioned like three political groups.