SOC Study Guide 3

Briefly describe the main characteristics of caste systems and class systems.

Caste: social stratification based on birth or ascribed status
-birth determined social position in 4 ways:
1. occupation
2. marriage within a caste
3. social life is restricted to "own" kind
4. belief systems are often tied to religious dogmas

Class: social stratification based on both birth and individual achievements (achieved status)
1. social mobility for people with education and skills
2. all people gain equal standing before the law
3. work involves some personal choice
4. meritocracy : based on personal merit

How are these types linked to different systems of economic production (agrarian versus industrial technology)?

-More agricultural= more divided.
-much less inequality when post industrial

What part does meritocracy play in each type of stratification? How does each type of stratification justify inequality?

--Meritocracy plays no part in the caste system, however it does play a part in class system.
--Meritocracy: an ideal system in which demonstrated personal effort and ability—or merit—determines social standing
--Caste justifies inequality in every step of it, you are born into a group and you never leave it. You cannot go up into higher or better groups in the caste system.

Greater rewards (incentives) are given for:
– Perceived importance of the position
– Scarcity of talent
– Training required
• Positions a society considers more important must
reward enough to draw talented people
• Egalitarian societies offer less incentive for people to
aspire for achievement.

Define structural social mobility. How does it differ from individual/exchange social mobility?

Structural social mobility
– Changes in society or national economic trends
--upper class expands with time (from 10% and 90% to 30% and 70%)

Personal (Exchange) social mobility
– Individual shift in class, either up or down
-social structure would stay the same with time (10% and 90% numbers stay same)

State the Davis-Moore thesis. According to this theory, why is social inequality useful for society? Provide two criticisms of this theory.

Thesis: Social stratification has functional, beneficial
consequences for the operation of a society
--Greater rewards (incentives) are given for:
– Perceived importance of the position
– Scarcity of talent
– Training required
• Positions a society considers more important must
reward enough to draw talented people
• Egalitarian societies offer less incentive for people to
aspire for achievement.

According to Karl Marx, what are the two major classes in industrial-capitalist societies? How did Marx describe the relationship between the two classes?

---Marx argues that the capitalist system forces people into one of two classes: the bourgeoisie and the proletariat

Most people have one of two relationships with the means of production.
--Bourgeoisie own productive property.
--The proletariat works for the bourgeoisie.
Capitalism creates great inequality in power and wealth.
This oppression would drive the working majority to organize and overthrow capitalism.

What is the Kuznets curve? What does it tell us about how social stratification has varied over the course of human history as well as in the world today?

Kuznets curve shows us: Greater technological sophistication generally is accompanied by more pronounced social
stratification.

-intensity of social stratification increased since shifted from hunter and gatherer to agrarian, however started going back down when hit industrial

What is the difference between income and wealth?

Income: earnings from work or investments (dividends)

Wealth: the total value of money and other assets minus any debt

Define the concepts “intragenerational mobility” and “intergenerational mobility.”

Intragenerational mobility:
--Change in social position during a person’s lifetime

Intergenerational mobility:
--Upward or downward movement that takes place across generations within a family

Income Numbers need to know!!

Income:
1. 1/5 of quintile (top 20%) of all earners in US bring about 50% of income in US.
2. bottom 20% earns about 4% of US's income earners.
3. top 20% earns 12 times more income than bottom 20%

Wealth Numbers need to know!!

Wealth:
1. Wealth is significantly more unequal (wealth is highly concentrated in few individuals)
2. top 20% population possesses 90% of all wealth in US.
3. bottom 20% has negative wealth (-1.4%), more debt than assets

Other numbers:

(Poverty rate in US used to be higher)
---past 50 years, poverty rate is about 10-15% of population

More numbers to know:

--Median family income in the US is $68,000
--African Americans earn about 60% compared to white income

Describe the distribution of income for the world as a whole. How does this distribution compare to income inequality in the United States?

There tends to be higher income in north than south, however Australia and New Zealand are also higher income.

What is the difference between relative poverty and absolute poverty? Which is a more dangerous type of poverty? Why?

Relative poverty–The deprivation of some people in relation to those who have more

Absolute poverty–A deprivation of resources that is life-threatening
--(more dangerous bc you are lacking the necessary resources for survival)

How does neocolonialism differ from colonialism? Describe the operation of each system. How does dependency theory / world systems theory use these terms.

Neocolonialism: A newer form of global power relationships that involves indirect political and economic influence/control (by multinational corporations)

Colonialism: Historical era by which more powerful nations exert political and economic control over other nations.

Dependency theory sees that people living in poor countries were often better off in the past than they are now.

What are the four stages of Walt Rostow’s modernization theory? What is “modernization?” Explain each stage and how it brings a society closer to the goal of modernization.

Rostow's stages of modernization: had a model of economic development that explains global inequality in terms of technological and cultural differences between societies

1. Traditional stage: limited technology, static society
---transition is triggered by external influence, interests, or markets
---installation of physical infrastructure, ex roads, railways, etc, and emergence of social/political elite
2. Take off stage: development of a manufacturing sector
(commercial exploitation of agriculture and extractive industry)
3. Drive to maturity: development of wider industrial and commercial base
4. High mass consumption

What do you find to be the strengths of modernization theory? What about dependency theory? Also point to what are, in your opinion, the two biggest weaknesses of each theory.

--The advantages of modernization theory are that it accurately describes a process common to the development of different societies.
--disadvantage: it fails to recognize how rich nations, which benefit from the status quo, often block the path to development for poor countries.
--another disadvantage: it treats rich and poor societies as seperate worlds, ignoring the ways in which the international relations have affected all nations.

--. The advantage of using dependency theory: to explain human interactions is that it provides a basis for understanding why rich nations usually remain rich, while poor nations struggle to lift themselves out of poverty.
--disadvantage: it wrongly treats wealth as if no one gets richer without someone else getting poorer. also wrong in blaming rich nations for global poverty because many of world's poorest countries have had little contact with rich nations.

Explain the difference between sex and gender. How are these concepts changing in modern society?

Sex: male- female biological differences
Gender: personal traits and social positions that members of a society attach to being male and female.

-What it means to be male or female is mostly a creation of society.

Different research on gender in a global perspective:

Israeli kibbutzim:
--Gender equality is a stated goal.
Margaret Mead’s research:
--Culture is key to gender differences.
George Murdock’s research:
--Some global agreement about feminine and masculine tasks.
Gender and culture:
--What it means to be male or female is mostly a creation of society.

Discuss the findings of George Murdock’s cross-cultural research of 221 pre-industrial societies regarding the gender distribution of work.

Murdock's findings:
--found some global agreement on which tasks are feminine and which masculine. (hunting and warfare= generally men and cooking and home-centered tasks generally women)
-with simple technology, preindustrial societies apparently assign roles reflecting men's and women's physical characteristics.
-but beyond this general pattern, he found much variety:
----for agriculture, women did farming in about same number of societies as men, and in most societies, the two sexes divided the work.
--when it came to many other tasks, from building shelters to tattooing the body, he found that preindustrial societies of the world were as likely to turn to one sex as the other.

How does the structural-functional approach lead us to view gender? How does the social-conflict approach differ?

--Structural-functional approach views gender as a means to organize social life

--Social-conflict thinks gender involves much more than differences in behavior-gender is a structural system of power that provides privilege to some and disadvantage to others.

Describe the patterns of gender inequality in the U.S. workforce (pay gap, glass ceiling, etc.) Based on the text, what are some reasons for this inequality?

There has been a slow, steady increase in women's income over the past 50 years, however it is still much less than men.
1. Type of job is different
2. Pay grade is much lower in wage quintile

Describe the unequal gender patterns in domestic household work.

Women work much more in house a day than men

Define race and ethnicity. How do they differ?

Race: socially constructed category composed of people who share biologically transmitted traits that members of a society consider important

Ethnicity: A shared cultural heritage

So, race is constructed from biological traits and ethnicity is constructed from cultural traits, such as ancestry, language, or religion.

Describe the regional patterns of various minority groups. In other words, list the various regions in the U.S. where each minority group is most likely to live.

--Because of the history of slavery in our country and it ending in the south last overall the other states and regions, it is more likely to find African American communities in the south (VA NC, SC, GA, top of FL, AL, MS, and LSU)
---Hispanic and Latino Communities most likely in bottom range of California to Texas)
--Asian communities most likely in California and Hawaii
--American Indian and Alaskan Native most likely in certain parts of New Mexico, Arizona, and Oklahoma (on reservations) and Alaska.
-Non hispanic white likely in northern half of US.

Which minority group has historically been the largest, and which is now the largest? Approximately when did this shift occur?

What is the scapegoat theory of prejudice? What is the conflict theory of prejudice?

--Scapegoat theory: holds that prejudice springs from frustration among people who are themselves disadvantaged. (scapegoat = a person or category of people, typically with little power, whom people unfairly blame for their own troubles, therefore minorities are often used as scapegoats)

--Conflict theory: claims prejudice is used as a tool by powerful people to oppress others.

List and define five patterns of minority and majority interaction (note: your text only provides four). Provide an example of each from U.S. history or events in other parts of the world.

---Genocide–The systematic killing of one category of people by
another. (ex: Holocaust)
---(Expulsion) – The systematic removal of one group from a society
(ex:
---Segregation–The physical and social separation of categories of
people (ex: slavery)
ex :Caste societies
---Assimilation –The process by which minorities gradually adopt
patterns of the dominant culture
---Miscegenation–Biological reproduction by partners of
different racial categories
---Pluralism/Multiculturalism – A state in which people of all races
and ethnicities are distinct but have equal social standing

Explain the assertion made in the text that race is socially constructed. That is, explain what biological traits may be used in defining race, but why a biological definition cannot explain the reality of race in the United States. Provide examples to illustrate your arguments.

Race can be defined somewhat differently by various categories of people within a society's population