This document provides an overview of a sociology presentation on social stratification. It includes definitions of key terms like social stratification and discusses the basic principles of stratification. It then covers different historical forms of social stratification from early societies to modern industrialized societies. The major systems of stratification discussed include slavery, caste, estate, and class systems. Different group members then provide more details on concepts like caste vs class systems, the history and causes of slavery, how the estate system worked, and the composition of social classes.

1. Sociology Presentation

2. Group Members:
• Saad Ali Khan
• Ahsan Rsheed
• Aqib Zafar
• Waleed Farooqi
• Hamza Sarwar

3. Introduction (Definitions)
 When differences lead to greater status,
power or privilege for some groups over
the other it is called social stratification.
Division of society into categories, ranks,
or classes
* can be based on either achieved or
ascribed status

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There are four basic principles of stratification:
Social stratification is a trait of society, not simply
a function of individual differences.
Social stratification persists over generations.
However, most societies allow some social
mobility or changes in people’s position in a
system of social stratification.
Social mobility may be upward, downward, or
horizontal.
Social stratification is universal but variable.
Social stratification involves not just inequality but

5. History of Social Stratification

6. History of Social Stratification:
 In early societies, people shared a common
social standing. As societies evolved and
became more complex, they began to
elevate some members.
* Hunting and Gathering Societies
* Horticultural, Pastoral, and Agricultural
Societies
* Industrialized Societies

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There are Four major stratification
systems:
slavery, caste, estate, and class

8. CASTE AND CLASS SYSTEM
BY
AHSAN RASHEED

9. CLASS SYSTEM
 a system in which social status is largely
determined by the family into which a
person is born.

10. …
 OPEN AND CLOSED CLASS SYSTEM
 An open class system is the stratification that
facilitates social mobility, Social mobility
(change in status) is defined as movement of
individuals, families, households, or other
categories of people within or between layers
of social stratification
 CLOSED CLASS of social stratification in
which status is ascribed from birth. In a
closed system, there is little to no social
mobility,
 Class system is ACHIEVED (EFFORT)
 ASCRIBED (BY BIRTH) STATUS

11. …
 In class system Reward is determined by achieved
status. (INCOME, WEALTH, COMFORT etc)
 Marx believe that throughout human history only
two classes have appeared, those are Lord -
Slave in ancient society, Landlords - Peasants in
feudal
 Property, prestige, and power are important
(Weber)

12. CASTE SYSTEM
 A caste system is a class structure that is
determined by birth.(ASCRIBED STATUS)
Loosely, it means that in some societies, if your
parents are poor, you’re going to be poor, too.
Same goes for being rich, if you’re a glass-half-full
person (Optimists).

13. …
 CLOSED and LIFELONG
 Caste system is based on Ascription
(ascribed status) No choice.
 Birth alone determines a person’s entire
future. Allowing little or no mobility and is
lifelong or permanent.
 IMMOBILITY AND INHERATED STATUS
 Caste cannot be changed it’s inherited.

14. …
 Based on SPECIFIC OCCUPATION
 ASCRIBED
 EXOGAMY (outside marriage) AND
ENDOGAMY (inside marriage)

15. INDIA IS THE BEST
EXAMPLE

16. CASTE AND CLASS
SYSTEM
 Caste System:
 Closed and
lifelong
 Immobility and
inherited status
 Based on specific
occupations
 Ascribed status
Class System:
Open and mobile.
Reward is
determined by
achieved status.
Property, prestige,
and power are
important.

17. Slavery
by Aqib Zafar

18. Slavery:
 Slavery is a system of stratification in which
one person owns another, as he or she
would own property, and exploits the slave’s
labor for economic gain.
Slaves are one of the lowest categories in
any stratification system, as they possess
virtually no power or wealth of their own.

19. History of Slavery:
 Many Americans view slavery as a phenomenon
that began with the colonization of the New
World and ended
with the Civil War, but slavery has existed for a
very long time.
Slavery appears in the Old Testament of the
Bible, as well as in the Qur’an. It was common
practice in ancient Greece and Rome .

20. Causes:
 Racism was the primary cause of slavery.
Reasons for slavery include debt, crime, war,
and beliefs of inherent superiority.
 Debt: Individuals who could not pay their
way out of debt sometimes had to literally
sell themselves. If a slave’s debt was not
paid off before his or her death, the debt was
often passed down to his or her children,
enslaving several generations of the same
family.

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 Crime: Families against whom a crime had
been committed might enslave members of
the perpetrator’s family as compensation.
 Prisoners of war: Slaves were often taken
during wartime, or when a new territory was
being invaded. When Rome was colonizing
much of the known world approximately
2,000 years ago, it routinely took slaves from
the lands it conquered.

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 Beliefs of inherent superiority: Some
people believe that they have a right to
enslave those who they believe are
inherently inferior to them.

23. SLAVERY
* Slavery still exists today. In Mauritania, the
Sudan, Ghana, Benin slavery exists much as it
did 800 years ago. In other parts of the world
including Bangladesh, India, Nepal and
Pakistan debt slavery is common.

24. Estate System
by Waleed Farooqi

25. Estate System
 An ancient stratification system that no
longer exists today was the estate system,
a three-tiered system composed of the
nobility, the clergy, and the commoners.
 During the Middle Ages, much of Europe was
organized under this system.

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Nobility:
The noble class or the body of nobles in a
country.
Members of the nobility had great inherited
wealth and did little or no discernible work.
They occupied themselves in what we would
term leisure pursuits, such as hunting or
riding. Others cultivated interests in cultural
pursuits, such as art and music.

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Clergy:
The body of all people ordained for religious
duties, especially in the Christian Church.
The clergy was very powerful in European
society in the Middle Ages, and membership
offered long-term job security and a
comfortable living. The higher up the ladder
a priest went, the more power he had over
the masses.

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Commoners:
One of the ordinary or common people, as
opposed to the aristocracy or to royalty.
They spent their lives engaged in hard
physical labor, with virtually no chance of
moving up in society.

29. Composition of Social Class
by Hamza Sarwar

30. Social Class:
 A group of people who share a common interest in
the society.
 The group of individuals who have similar status in
the economic system of a society . They share
same power, wealth and prestige.
 Four common social classes informally recognized
in many societies are:
 Upper class
 Middle class
 Working class
 lower class

31. Upper Class

32. Upper Class (Elite Class):
 The class occupying the highest position in
the social hierarchy.
 Has 25% of the nations wealth.
 Only 1 to 3% in the society.
 There are two types in the upper class
 Upper – upper class (old money)
 Lower – upper class (new money)

33. Middle Class

34. Middle Class:
 The middle class is the “sandwich” class
 The middle class mainly consists of White
collar workers.
 The middle class has following types
 Upper middle
 Lower middle

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 Upper Middle Class:
according to Max Weber the upper middle
class consists of well-educated professionals
with comfortable income.
 Have both good incomes and high social
prestige. Well-educated. But lower than the
upper class.

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Lower Middle Class:
 Less educated with less income.
 Provide support for professionals
 Engage in data collection., record-keeping
 Paralegals, bank tellers, sales

37. Working Class
 The working class is the group of people
which must work for someone else to make
money for their survival.
 This class has low income but they work
stable.
 Laborers in factories
 Restaurant workers
 Repair shops, garages

38. Lower class
 They are the subject class.
 They are blue collar workers
 The are obsessed in the society.
 They earn less then the minimum wage
 Unemployed individuals are also included in the lower
class
 Unstable jobs, more work less income.

39. Significance of Social Class
by Waleed Farooqi

40. Significance of Social Class:
* Happiness and Social Class
*Determining life chances
*Cultivating class Ethnocenterism
*Defining the conventional Morality
*Explaining many other group differences
*Shaping political attitudes and life-styles
*Getting the “Dirty-Work” done
*Fitting into the better spots