This document provides a summary of key concepts from chapters 12-14 of an introductory sociology textbook. It discusses systems of social stratification like caste, estate, class, and concepts like social mobility, prejudice, discrimination, and the social construction of race, ethnicity, and gender. The main points covered include definitions of social class, the legitimizing rationales that bolster stratification systems, Marx and Weber's conceptualizations of class, and forms of social stratification like slavery.

1. Introduction to Sociology

2. Week 5: Chapter Review, 12-

3. CHAPTER 12
Stratification-
• 1. systems persist for a long time. 2. systems are resistant to change. 3.
each system is bolstered by legitimating rationales.
Legitimizing rationale-
• Generally accepted beliefs that something is fair and just.
Caste system-
• One's rank is determined at birth and fixed for life, and based on
ascribed characteristics. it determines one person's prestige,
occupation, and residence as well as the nature of his/her relationships.
Example: in India-
• Transmigration, karma, dharma, varna, jatis, scheduled castes
(brahmans, kshatriyas, vaishyas, shudras, dalits.
Estate system
• One’s place in the social hierarchy is also determined at birth. Contacts
between different estates are permitted, but marriage between estates is
forbidden
Example: in medieval Europe:
• Feudal, estates (first, second, third), villeins, fourth estate.

4. CHAPTER 12
Marx’s concept of class-
• The most important thing about any society was its economic system,
especially the means by which it produced the items that people needed
to survive.
Bourgeoisie-
 Capitalist class, comprising the owners of the means of production.
Proletariat-
 Marx's term for the exploited class, the mass of workers who do
not own the means of production.
Weber’s conception of class-
• Refers to a group of people who have the same typical chance for
supply of goods, external living conditions, and the personal life
experiences, insofar as this change is determined by the power to
dispose of goods and skills for the sake of income in a given economic
order.
Lifestyle verses life chances-
• Distinctive ways in which people consume goods and services; the
social customs associated with each class.

5. CHAPTER 12
Kuznet’s curve-
• The observation that the intensity of social inequality varies with the
economic structure of society.
Power-
• probability that one actor within a social relationship will be in a
position to carry out his own will despite resistance. the ability to
impose one's will or to get one's way even when faced with opposition
from others.
Authority-
• Power that is seen as justified.
Status-
• Status describes the position a person occupies in a particular setting.
Prestige-
• The reputation or esteem associated with one's position in society,
which is closely tied to their social class.
Socioeconomic status-
• Income, education, occupational prestige, and wealth. Provides some
overall assessment of peoples place in the social stratification system.

6. CHAPTER 12
Chattel slavery-
• “Movable property" as opposed to "real property" this is the type of
slavery that existed in the southern states before the civil war.
Manumission-
• Transfer of class.
Social mobility-
• The movement of individuals, families, households, or other categories
of people within or between social strata in a society.
Horizontal-
• Position changes, but social status stays the same.
Vertical-
• Social Status moving up or down.
Intergenerational-
• Change in social position that occurs during a person's lifetime.
Intragenerational-
• Change in social position that occurs over multiple generations.

7. CHAPTER 12
Open system verses closed system-
• In an open class system, people are ranked by their achieved status (a
title someone achieves), whereas in a closed class system, people are
ranked by their ascribed status (a status born into or adapted).
Exogamy-
• Norm that requires an individual to marry someone from outside of his
or her own kinship, religious or social class group.
Endogamy-
• Norm that requires an individual to marry someone from within his or
her own kinship, religious or social group.

8. CHAPTER 13
Effects of parents social class-
• Children are very likely to end up in the same social class as their
parents.
Income-
• Earnings from work or investments.
Wealth-
• The total value of money and other assets, minus outstanding debts .
Matthew effect-
• The notion that people who have wealth, fame, or other scarce social
goods find it easier to accumulate more of these compared to those
with no no wealth, fame, or other scarce social goods.
Cultural explanations of inequality-
• People of different social classes have different patterns of values,
beliefs and behavioral norms, which is passed on to their
children. People who are poor usually are poor because their degree to
which these values, beliefs and behavioral norms are out of whack with
those of mainstream society.
Oscar Lewis’ “culture of poverty”-
• Idea poor parents passed values to their children.

9. CHAPTER 13
Structural explanations of inequality-
• Differences in values, beliefs, and behavioral norms that seem to exist
are better explained as the consequences of poverty rather than as the
cause. It’s not the culture but rather the opportunities open to the
poor that holds them back.
“Blaming the victim”-
• Unjustly stating or believing that the cause of a problem resides in the
individuals or groups who experience the problem, when the real
source or cause of the problem in the social environment.
Tracking, in schools-
• The process whereby students are divided into categories sothat they
can be assigned in groups to various kinds of classes. Usually placed
in a category on how fast the children are able to learn.
Pygmalion effect-
• Effect of teacher’s expectations on student’s performance.
Structural mobility-
• Mobility that results from such social facts as changes in the
occupational structure, immigrations and birth rates.

10. CHAPTER 13
Gini Coefficient-
• A way of measuring how much inequality exists. The higher to
coefficient, the more inequality.

11. CHAPTER 14
Prejudice-
• A biased attitude toward a group of people or an individual member of a
group based on unfair generalizations about what members of that
group are like.
Stereotypes-
• Oversimplified generalized images of members of a particular group.
Discrimination-
• Unequal treatment of various categories of people. Prejudice refers to
attitudes, but discrimination is a matter of action.
Robert Merton-
• Deviance is a socially created behavior, not only 'momentary
pathological impulses'.
Typology of prejudice and discrimination-
• Not all people who are prejudiced practice discrimination, not all
people who practice discrimination are prejudice.

12. CHAPTER 14
Gordon Allport-
Types of discriminatory behavior-
• People tend to hold onto their prejudices even in the face of
contradictory information. Prejudice is sustained by stereotypes,
which deny the existence of individual differences among the
members of a specific social category. Different types of
discriminatory behaviors include: Verbal rejections, Avoidance,
Active discrimination, physical attacks, and extermination.
Individual discrimination-
• Discrimination that individuals practice in their daily lives, usually
because they are prejudiced but sometimes even if they are not
prejudiced.
Institutional discrimination-
• Discrimination that pervades the practices of whole institutions, such
as housing, medical care, law enforcement, employment, and
education.
Louis Wirth-
Minority group-
• Minority group of people because of their physical and cultural
characteristics, are signed out from the others in the society in
which they live for differential and unequal treatment.

13. CHAPTER 14
Dominant group-
• The Dominant group membership is that one enjoys greater
privilege.
“isms”, distinguished from other types of discrimination-
• Generally applied to acts of discrimination that occur at the institutional
level or, when they occur at the individual level, are consistent with
institutional patterns of discriminations.
Pyramiding effect of discrimination-
• Cumulative impact of encounters with racist behavior. Blatant acts of
avoidance, verbal harassment, and physical attack combine with subtle
and covert slights and these accumulate over months, years or lifetime
affect people.
Race as a social construct-
• Race is a subjective, social, political, and cultural construct.
Ethnicity-
• Socially identified and set apart by others and by itself on the basis of
unique cultural or nationally characteristics.
Sex-
• The physical and biological differences between males and females.

14. CHAPTER 14
Margaret Mead-
Studies of three New Guinea societies-
• Studied the degree to which differences in male and female
personalities were a result of socialization rather than biological
factors. Found a standardized male and female personality in each
culture.