ANTH 111 - Cultural Anthropology - Topic 8 - Exploring Inequalities : Class, Caste, Race & Ethnicity

What is social inequality?

Unequal access to the culturally valued resources of wealth, power and prestige.

What is wealth?

What has value in a society.

What is power?

The ability to bring about change through action or influence, and is embedded in all human relationships, violent & non-violent.

What is prestige?

Social honour or respect within a society, the reputation, influence and deference (respect) bestowed on certain people because of their membership in certain groups.

What are the 3 types of societies based on levels of social inequality?

1. Egalitarian

2. Rank

3. Stratified

What are some characteristics of a egalitarian society?

• Few differences in status, wealth and power

• usually foragers

• economics = based on reciprocity

• little to no political specialization (like voting)

• everyone has equal access to positions of esteems and respect (depending on skill level)

Examples:

• Ju/’hoansi of Kalahari region

• Hadza of tanzania

• Inuit of Canada

What are some characteristics of a rank society?

• Big-man societies

• Largely based on heditary positions

• Kinship plays an important role

• Chiefs have great prestige and power but do not accumulate great wealth

• Chiefs have little real power or control over the land itself

• Chiefs maintain their position through generosity (redistribution)

Example:

• Trobriand Islands

What are some characteristics of a stratified society?

A society with a large population, divided into several levels based on the degree of social inequality.

• Uses market economies (supply & demand)

• Uses levels called strata

  • can include race, ethnicity, gender , sexuality, kinship, legal status, ability & class

• Social inequality is built into the structure of the society

What is strata?

Relatively permanent levels in societies, separating people according to their access to wealth, power and prestige. AKA social classes

What is class?

A ranked group within a stratified society characterized by achieved status and social mobility (move up and down the social hierarchy).

What is a caste?

A ranked group within a rigidly stratified society characterized in which membership is ascribed at birth and status and social mobility (move up and down the social hierarchy) is almost non-existant.

Based on hindu texts.

What are the major social categories in a caste?

VARNAS (from the bottom up)

• Shudras — commoners, peasants, servants, unskilled labour

• Vaishyas — merchants, landowners, skilled trades

• Kshatriyas — warriors, rulers

• Brahmans — priests

The ones below the shudras are called the dalits (“untouchables”) AKA outcasts.

What is sanskritization?

A form of upward social mobility found in contemporary India where people born into lower castes can achieve higher status by taking on some of the behaviors and practices of the highest (Brahman) caste.

What are jatis?

Local groups in India associated by their occupation, geography or tribe. They are ascribed and ranked within each varna. They are ranked on a scale based on who has the “purest” to the “most polluted” diet.

• Lowest — unclean meat eaters & include basketweavers (eats pork) and leatherworkers (eat pork & beef) + those who slaughter animals or touch polluted things

• Highest — vegetarian Brahmins

What are the mechanisms castes have in order to maintain social order?

1. Marriage rules

   • can only marry within their respective jat (jati endogamy), marrying outside one’s jati = serious punishment

2. Spatial segregation

   • it functions to maintain the privileges of the upper castes and to remind lower castes or their marginal status

   • Dalits may live in complete isolation

3. Ritual

   • only certain priests can perform certain ceremonies

   • each caste has its own rituals to intensify group awareness & identity

     • “ we are the brahmins”

What is status?

Position an individual occupies in society.

What is achieved status?

Status acquired during the course of his or her life in which they can move up and down the social hierarchy.

What is ascribed status?

Status acquired at birth in which they cannot move up and down the social hierarchy.

What is race?

A system of classification with no biological basis, that uses certain physical characteristics to divide the human population into discrete groups.

What is the social construction of race?

A way of categorizing people that's based on society's ideas about what makes people different, rather than on biology.

What is naturalization and how is it a problem?

The social processes through which something, such as race, becomes part of the natural order of things. This can be a problem because it makes unfair systems seem normal and harder to challenge.

What is racialization and how is it a problem?

The process of categorizing, differentiating and attributing a particular racial character to a person or group of people. This is a problem because it reinforces discrimination, inequality, and social divisions.

What is whiteness and how is it a problem?

A culturally constructed concept originating in 1691 in Virginia, designed to establish clear boundaries of who is White and who is not.

A process central to the formation of U.S. racial stratification.

This is a problem because it reinforces racial inequality and makes it harder to challenge systemic racism.

Who is Jim Crow and how is he related to racial thinking?

Jim Crow is used as a derogatory term for African American. The “Jim Crow laws” were implemented after the U.S. Civil War to enforce segregation legally, specifically in the South after the end of slavery. This is a problem as it justifies inequality and separates Black people away from opportunities.