Anthro Exam 3

What do we mean by social stratification?

• Social stratification refers to the structures that result from unequal access to and distribution of goods and services in a society, and is related to the organization of production and cultural values

How are social stratification and social complexity related?

• With more social complexity we see a more unequal flow of resources among groups. This unequal flow of resources often results in social stratification.

When it comes to making sense of social stratification, what are some features of the functionalist perspective? What about theories based on conflict?

• Functionalist theories argue that social stratification generally benefits the whole society.

  • One argument is that society is better off by rewarding people socially and/or economically to work harder, take more risks, do more difficult jobs, spend more time training or going to school, etc.

  • Another argument is that stratification provides a society with more structure and internal organization, leading to more stability over time.

• Conflict theories argue that social stratification results from the constant struggle for scarce goods and services.

  • Conflict theories argue that this conflict results in some groups gaining status and others losing status, resulting in stratification.

  • Conflict theories argue that inequality, especially extreme inequality, can lead to oppression and denial of basic rights.

  • Furthermore, social stratification and inequality can be sources of conflict and instability.

What do we mean by power, wealth, and prestige? How are these related to each other?

• Power refers to the ability of some to control resources in their own interest.

• Wealth refers to the accumulation of material resources or access to the means of production.

• Prestige refers to social honor. The cultural bases of prestige are different in different societies.

What do we mean by ascribed and achieved status? What do we mean by open and closed stratification systems? How are these two sets of categories related to each other?

• Ascribed status refers to status based on factors outside the individual’s control. Examples include race, ethnicity, family of origin, and biological sex.

• Achieved status refers to status based on individual effort. Examples include being a husband or wife, being a college professor, being a criminal, and being an artist.

• In an open stratification system, social position is based mostly on achievement.

• In a closed stratification system, social position is based mostly on ascription.

What do we mean by a caste system? Be prepared to describe some features of India’s caste system in a very broad outline.

• A caste system refers to a system of stratification based on birth in which the strata are hierarchically ranked and movement between them is difficult or impossible. In a caste system, ascribed status is more important than achieved status.

  • The Hindu caste system contains four main categories, called varnas. Varnas are ranked according to their ritual purity, which is largely based on traditional occupations.

  • Varna literally means “color.” Figuratively, it means type, tribe, or community. Varnas are hereditary, endogamous, and semi-autonomous groups. And, varnas were traditionally associated with particular occupations.

    • 1. Brahmins were the highest ranked varna and were traditionally priests and scholars.

    • 2. Kshatriyas were the ruling and warrior caste.

    • 3. Vaisyas were the merchants.

    • 4. Shudras were the menial workers and artisans.

  • There is a further distinction between varnas and jatis.

    • Varnas are the idealized, four-part division of society.

    • Jatis are the functional or “real” castes.

  • There are many social rules and institutions that maintain caste boundaries.

    • Inter-caste marriage is prohibited.

    • Inter-caste eating is prohibited.

    • Higher-caste people will not accept most kinds of food or drink from lower-caste people.

    • In villages, the lowest castes are spatially and socially segregated. They are prohibited from using high caste wells and temples.

What do we mean by a class system? Be prepared to describe some features of Colonial America’s class system in a very broad outline.

• A class system refers to a system of stratification in which the different strata form a continuum and social mobility between levels is possible, although it’s often difficult. In a class system, achieved status is more important than ascribed status.

  • Wealthy landowning families

  • Artisans, shopkeepers, smallholders

  • Indentured servants

  • Slaves

At a broad level, be able to explain how variation between humans can be due to genes, environments, and culture.

Genes: people may vary because they inherited different genes from their parents.

Environment: people may vary because they live in different environments.

Culture: People may vary because they acquired different beliefs, values, and skills through culture.

Why does skin color vary across populations the way that it does?

• Most people living near the equator have darker skin, whereas people living away from the equator have lighter skin.

  • Disadvantage of sunlight exposure: Exposure to a lot of sunlight reduces folate levels. Folate is crucial for DNA synthesis, cell production, etc. Dark skin buffers against folate depletion through excessive sunlight exposure.

  • Advantage of sunlight exposure: Sunlight is necessary for the body to produce vitamin D which is needed for calcium absorption. The further away from the equator you are, the less sunlight exposure you'll get. So, light skin is an adaptation to let in more sunlight and facilitate vitamin D production.

Most traits that we care about are affected by lots of genes. What is ‘heritability’ and how does this concept help us make sense of the source of variation?

• Heritability is the proportion of phenotypic variation that is due to genetics as opposed to environmental causes.

• Geneticists use statistical methods in order to estimate the relative importance of genetic and environmental components of variation within groups for such complex traits.

How can twin studies help us make sense of heritability?

• Twin studies can tease apart the effects of genetic transmission from environmental covariation (similarity between the environments of parents and their offspring)

Many people have misconceptions about what race means when it comes to biologically categorizing people. We spoke about three common misconceptions. Be able to explain these misconceptions and the kinds of evidence we have to debunk them.

• 1. The human species can be naturally divided into a small number of distinct races. On this view, most people are members of exactly one race (the exceptions being offspring of members of different races). A common way of categorizing people into races uses four groupings: white, Black, Asian, and indigenous peoples from the Americas.

  • If we travel between regions (like England and Japan), there will never be a specific place where people stop looking like English people and start looking like Japanese people. The variation gradually changes rather than changing abruptly.

• 2. Members of different races are different in important ways, so knowing a person’s race gives you important information about what he or she is like, including their intelligence or character.

  • Racial classification schemes based on different sets of characters don’t result in the same groups for all characters.

    • For example, a classification scheme based on the ability to digest lactose would yield different grouping from one based on resistance to malaria.

    • Similarly, a classification scheme based on height would yield different groupings than one based on skin color.

• 3. The differences between races are due to biological differences. That is, members of each race are genetically similar to one another, and genetically different from members of other races.

  • Human populations are different from each other in terms of behavior. But it’s culture that makes human populations different from one another, not biology.

What can we learn about variation across human populations when comparing humans to chimpanzees?

• Humans are much less genetically variable compared to chimpanzees.

• If we catalogue the genetic diversity in the entire human population, we find that 85% of that variation exists within groups, while only 15% of the variation is between groups.

• If biological races were meaningful concepts, then there would be more variation between groups than within groups. That’s not the case with humans, but it is the case with chimpanzees.

What do we mean when we say that race is not biological related but, instead, a social construct?

• Race is a social construct, not a biologically meaningful way of categorizing people. Different societies construct “race” in different ways based on their specific histories and social structures.

How is/was race socially constructed in Japan?

• While Japan is less diverse than some other nations, it does contain significant minority groups. About 10% of the population are comprised of aboriginal Ainu, annexed Okinawans, outcast burakumin, children of mixed marriages, and immigrant nationalities, especially Koreans.

• The ethnic majority of Japan often define themselves by opposition to others (i.e. anyone who is “not us”). In Japanese culture, assimilation by outsiders can be difficult and may be discouraged. Many cultural mechanisms work to keep racial and ethnic minorities separate from the majority, especially residential segregation and taboos on “interracial” marriage.

How is/was race socially constructed in the United States?

• In the United States, race is an ascribed status and is usually acquired at birth. However, race is neither based on biology or simple ancestry.

• Used to have the so-called “one-drop rule,” a descent rule (i.e. the rule assigns social identity on the basis of ancestry). According to this rule, a person is Black if they have any Black ancestors, however remote. Even if all but one of their ancestors are white, the person would traditionally have been Black because one of their ancestors was Black.

• Recently, however, there is a growing concept of “mixed race” ancestry. The number of people claiming this categorization has been increasing over the last few census reports. As we discussed, since the 2000 Census, people can self-identify as more than one race—and many people do.

How is/was race socially constructed in Brazil?

• Brazil shares a history of slavery with the US, but it lacks the hypo-descent rule of the U.S.

• Brazilians use many more racial labels than the US or Japan (perhaps up to several hundred). Brothers and sisters can be classified as members of different races depending on multiple criteria such as skin color, nose length and shape, eye color and shape, hair type and color, and the shape of the lips. And, to some degree, racial classification is flexible. In addition to appearance, racial classification in Brazil is also based on language, location (e.g. urban vs rural), and behavior.

• Despite the finer-grained distinctions and flexibility in Brazil, racial classification still contributes to an unequal class system, with whites at the top, blacks at the bottom, and “brown” people somewhere in between.

How are racial categories similar and different when comparing the United States and Brazil?

• Brazil shares a history of slavery with the US, but it lacks the hypo-descent rule of the U.S.

What is a possible reason why the United States and Brazil have different classification systems for race?

• The historical reason for the differences in racial categorization may lie in differences among the settlers of the two countries.

• Perhaps as a result of these demographic differences, Brazil never developed the kind of hypo-descent rule for racial classification that developed in America. As a result, the divide between white and Black people was not as stark in Brazil.

What is ethnicity and how is it different from race as a way of classifying and categorizing groups of people?

• Ethnicity refers to perceived differences, such as culture, religion, language, national origin, by which groups of people distinguish themselves and are distinguished from others in the same social environment. Race is usually about physical differences. Ethnicity is about cultural differences. Like race, ethnicity is a cultural construction that changes over time.

What are the three major ideas and ideals about the process by which immigrants adapt to America after arrival?

• 1. Under the “assimilation model,” immigrants were supposed to abandon their ethnic traditions and adopt the dominant or American culture.

• 2. Under the “melting pot” model, the idea was that immigrants would meld together to form a new, synthetic American culture.

• 3. Under the “multiculturalism model,” people view cultural diversity as a positive aspect of America.

What do we mean when we talk about a World System? When did the world become a system in this way according to historians? Why?

• The modern world is deeply interconnected, politically, economically, and culturally. From the time of Columbus, historians see the world in a different way. They talk about the rise of a “World System,” a term which captures some of the interconnections.

What were some of the reasons why Europeans were motivated to explore, conquer, and colonize the rest of the world?

• For some, the goal was to Christianize the world. This was especially true for Catholics.

• For others, the goal was to discover ancient wonders, including the mythical kingdom of Prester John, a Christian patriarch and king said to rule over a Christian nation lost amidst the Muslims and pagans in the Orient; the fountain of youth; and the seven cities of Cibola, or the Seven Cities of Gold. This coincided with the beginning of modern science.

• For many, the goal was about getting wealthy through trade and conquest for self and country.

What were some of the reasons why Europeans were able to explore, conquer, and colonize the rest of the world?

• There were significant improvements in ocean going vessels.

• This time period saw the rise of a banking and merchant class.

• Europe was experiencing a growing population. Coupled together with wars, plagues, and economic depression, some people wanted to go somewhere else where the prospects might be better. In particular, the unemployed but ambitious younger sons of the nobility and merchant classes.

• This time period saw the rise of monoculture plantations, which intensively and exclusively grew one crop for profit.

• The rest of the joint stock company, the ancestor of the modern public corporation. The joint stock company allowed the financing of large-scale expeditions.

• Europeans had better immunity to diseases than did those from the New World and Africa.

• In some cases, entire indigenous populations would perish within 20 years of European contact.

• Europeans had advanced technological prowess in metalworking. Europeans were more advanced than those they colonized in terms of weapons, armor, guns, and cannons.

What do we mean when we refer to Colonialism? Why do we talk about the Colonial Era differently than previous periods of history in which some groups conquered other groups?

• Colonialism refers to the active possession and political domination of foreign territory.

• The “Colonial Era” refers to the expansion of Western Europeans from the 15th century to the early 20th century. This was the most radical era of colonialism in history, the one that most dramatically altered the history of humanity.

What were some of the ways in which colonial powers forced people into labor?

• African slavery/triangular trade

• The lower classes of Europe often moved to the colonies as indentured servants.

• Until WWI, most colonial governments required substantial labor from their subjects. Such unpaid labor was called corvée labor. The British government often compelled subjects to work for 1 month per year. The Dutch government required 2 months.

• In addition to forced labor, colonial governments often required native peoples to radically alter their cultural practices. For example, a colonial government would often control what farmers produced (e.g. cotton), where they lived, with whom they traded, and how they organized their labor. Many farmers ended up much poorer than they had been before and struggled to survive against famine and hardship.

• Finally, colonial governments often drafted natives into their armed forces, using these armies to fight colonial wars.

How was industrialism related to colonialism?

• Europeans and Americans could produce weapons in greater quantity and quality than other peoples. This helped to fuel colonialism.

• Industrialization created a huge demand for raw materials that couldn’t be satisfied in Europe and America. This created big demands for colonialism.

Why was taxation important to colonialism?

• Taxes were needed to support colonial governments. But, colonial economies were often small and so tax receipts were low.

• Taxing had another purpose, forcing native subjects into the market system.

• Taxation often forced colonial subjects into a vicious cycle of dependency on the market system.

How was ideology used to justify colonialism?

• The British poet Rudyard Kipling called on people to take up “The White Man’s Burden” of bringing civilization to the “savage” peoples of the world.

What do we mean by globalization?

• Globalization sometimes refers to the increase in the international flow of goods and services.

• The world is becoming ever more interconnected and interdependent.

What is the logic of trade? How does trade make countries richer? How is this related to the sexual division of labor that we talked about when discussing foraging societies?

• Trade allows groups to specialize.

• By specializing, each group becomes more productive, compared to a case in which each group tried to make everything.

• When countries trade with one another, they each become wealthier, compared to a case in which each country remained isolated and tried to produce everything.

• The logic of trade is the same logic we saw earlier in the semester when we talked about the sexual division of labor. In that case, we talked about how societies would be wealthier if each sex specialized in certain activities and then exchanged with each other. That process was about specialization and exchange across sexes within societies. Here, we are talking about specialization and exchange across countries.

What are some of the drawbacks to more trade between regions? Who benefits? Who doesn’t?

• But, more trade also means more inequality, more corruption, and more environmental degradation.

• Argument that companies should treat workers in developing countries the same as they would treat workers in the West.

• This is a very tricky issue. While the working conditions in these factories may not be acceptable to us, in general people in developing countries take this work because it’s better than the alternative (often farming).

• If sweatshops had to pay Western wages, they would never relocate from the West.

What has happened to economic inequality in countries like America over the last generation or two? Which kinds of professions have gotten richer? Which have not?

• Over the last 40 years, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in economic inequality.

• As the world has become more globalized, highly skilled workers (e.g. programmers, financiers, lawyers) have benefitted immensely as the rest of the world buys their services.

• At the same time, low skilled workers (e.g. factory workers, coal miners) have seen their jobs move to developing countries or have had to compete directly with lower paid workers from developing countries.

What are some reasons why social scientists think we should or should not care about economic inequality?

• Traditionally, some social scientists have not worried about inequality for two reasons:

  • Income inequality sends important signals in the economy and sets incentives for what people should do.

  • If everyone is seeing some growth in their income, we shouldn’t care too much about rising inequality.

• Other social scientists have worried about inequality:

  • In some cases, extreme economic inequality might hurt economic growth. In a modern economy, access to education is crucial. If inequality is high enough, the poor may not be able to obtain a good education. Since talent isn’t confined to the wealthy, the country may suffer. A similar argument holds for societies that deny women opportunities.

  • What if the rich squander resources on increasingly frivolous luxuries when other kinds of investments, such as human capital for the poor, would yield a higher return?

  • What if the poor become so disenfranchised that they reject important political and economic institutions, such as property rights or the rule of law? What if class warfare leads to measures that punish the rich without making the poor any better off?

What are some common characteristics of rich, developed countries when compared to poor, underdeveloped countries?

• Rich countries have

  • Effective government institutions

  • Well-developed property rights

  • Less regulation

  • Invest more in education

  • Good geography

  • More open to trade

  • Responsible fiscal and monetary policy

  • Democratic political institutions

  • Woman power

• Poor countries have

  • Curse of natural resources

Since WWII, we have seen three broad approaches to help poor countries develop. Describe these three approaches.

• Modernization theory: A model of economic development that predicts that non-industrial societies will move in the social and technological direction of industrialized nations.

• Human needs approach: Projects aimed at providing access to clean water, education, and health care for the poorest of the world’s people.

  • The modernization approach focused on the institutions of the modern world. The basic human needs approach focused, instead, on investing in human capital. When people are healthy and well-fed, they can contribute effectively to the economy.

  • Many of the projects focused on involving members of rural communities in managing and promoting these goals.

• Structural adjustment: In exchange for loans, wealthy nations demanded that poor nations restructure their economies:

  • Sell off state-owned enterprises

  • Reduce subsidies to local businesses and industries

  • Reduce spending on education, health, and social programs

  • Open markets to free trade

Name and describe the archetypes of conspiracy detailed by Jesse Walker? Be prepared to provide an example, real or made up, of each?

• Enemy Within: fear of communists

• Enemy Outside: fear of spies

• Enemy Above: illuminati

• Enemy Below: slave rebellions

• Benevolent Conspiracies (conspiracy of angels): some secretive organization works behind the scenes for the betterment of mankind

Name and describe common traits of conspiratorial thinking.

• Rarely consistent

• Built on unknowns

• Reinforces community

• Framed as protecting a vulnerable group

• Simple explanation of a complex

What purpose was the myth of the mound builders used for in 19th century politics?

• Justify colonial expansion, Support government actions

• This argument was used explicitly and directly by US president Andrew Jackson as justification for the Indian Removal Act of 1830, the law that catalyzed the Trail of Tears

What are reasons that people fall for conspiratorial thinking?

• Preys on primal fears

• Offers to explain inexplicable events and ideas

• Reacts to drastic social change

• Justifies already-held beliefs

• Reinforces social boundaries

What kinds of questions should you ask yourself to identify conspiracy theories that you encounter?

• First, ask yourself how many people would have to be involved for this to remain hidden. 

• Second, how long would it have to remain hidden?

• Third, what benefits do the supposed perpetrators gain?

• Fourth, does this imply harm to a vulnerable group without proof?

• Fifth, does this imply harm is being done by a group you already hate?

• Sixth, do the offered explanations follow from the available evidence?

• Finally, are the prominent figures within the conspiracy experts in the area they are theorizing about?