Introduction
Social stratification refers to a system by which individuals in society are ranked in a hierarchy on the basis of power, prestige or property. Stratification is a characteristic of society that persists over generations, creating a pattern of social inequality. In this case, the social inequality is attributed to unfair distribution of societal resources on a regular, wide-scale basis along the lines of certain specific, identifiable characteristics (Tumin, 1985). The most identifiable forms of social stratification are caste and class systems, which are practiced in various parts of the world.
The caste system
The term caste is derived from the Spanish word ‘casta’ which can loosely mean ‘breed, race, strain or a complex of hereditary qualities.' According to Anderson and Parker "Caste is that extreme form of social class organization in which the position of individuals in the status hierarchy is determined by descent and birth." The caste system originated as a natural division of occupational classes but was eventually solidified with religious sanction. India has the best example of a religiously indoctrinated caste system, governed by the doctrines of Hinduism (Collins, 1975).
Divisions of the caste system
The caste system in India divides the society into five distinct categories; the Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, Sudras and Harijans.
- Brahmans: refers to the highest social order that is composed of individuals related to the Supreme Being. The Brahman caste consists of priests and scholars whose main duty is to study the ancient scriptures of India. The Brahmans must uphold high honor in their conduct and show purity and rituality in their behavior. Brahmans do not perform many of the tasks associated with ordinary life such as agriculture, livestock keeping and thus depend on lower castes to provide for their needs.
- Kshatriyas: this social order is composed of kings, generals, soldiers, warriors and their families. Their traditional role is to protect the society from external aggravation and maintain peace and order within the boundaries of society. They are expected to be brave and high-minded as taught by the Brahman.
- Vaishyas: they are considered the legs in society, and are mainly composed of ordinary men and women in society. Their duties revolve around livestock keeping, agriculture and trading enterprises.
- Sudras: They are the feet in society and their duty is to serve the members of the higher caste divisions. Their occupational duties revolve around ‘polluted’ jobs such as waste collection, leather tanning, laundering, servitude in agriculture and tailoring.
- Harijans: These are considered the lowest individuals in the hierarchy of Indian society. They lived apart from other castes and were expected to perform jobs that nobody else wanted to perform such as undertaking. The harijans are considered to be lower than animals in the social order. The Harijans were termed as ‘untouchables’ for the belief that even the slightest touch with them would diminish purity.
Features of the caste system
1. Segmental division of society: The Hindu society is divided into four main classes that are vehemently categorized on the concept of high and low, superior and inferior, pure and impure, touchable and untouchable. The segments in society are adopted by heredity or birth. This means that the caste divisions are irrevocable and no amount of wealth or effort can change the caste status.
2. Social and religious hierarchy: The caste system is based on a hierarchy that has both social and religious impact on the citizens. The harijans are assumed to be outcasts from society while the Brahmans at the top of the hierarchy are almost deity.
3. Restrictions on social interaction: The caste system places a lot of restrictions regarding social interaction activities such as; marriage, feeding, residence and courting between individuals from different castes. The system went as far as imposing restrictions on the distance between individuals. For instance, harijans cannot step within ninety six paces of the Brahmans.
4. Endogamy: This means that an individual is bound to their caste from the moment of birth to death. No amount of effort or accumulation of wealth, power or material assets can change the caste of an individual (Buckley, 1958).
5. Restricted choice of occupation: In the caste system, individuals are expected to serve in their rightful occupations without change. In spite of interest, inclination or skills in other fields, individuals are forced to perform only the occupations set for their caste. The caste system does not allow upward social mobility.
The class system
The class system is a method of social stratification that occurs in many Western nations and developed economies. The Marxist definition of class asserts that societies are divided into privileged and unprivileged classes on the basis of resource allocation and the manner in which members labored. The class system faces differences in the level of consumption, and distribution of economic and political power (Tumin, 1985). It is important to note that the Marxist distinction between privileged and unprivileged is not attained in real societies since the line between classes is blurred (Marx, and Engels, 1978).
The social class is composed of individuals who share common economic resources and exhibit nearly similar lifestyle choices. Sociologists distinguish between three major classes in modern societies; upper class, middle class and working/lower class.
Upper class: In modern societies, the upper class is defined by owning large amounts of inherited or accumulated wealth. The possession of copious amounts of property and income allows the upper class to develop a distinctive lifestyle that is based on leisure and the pursuit of cultural pursuits. Members of the upper class are able to exert a lot of economic and political influence and can procure superior education for their children, leading to higher chances of success in future (Buckley, 1958).
Middle class: This social order is composed of middle level managers, supervisors, shopkeepers, businessmen and individuals involved in technical professions. The members of the middle class aspire to achieve upper class status and will often mimic the trends and lifestyles of the rich. In modern times, the line between the middle and upper class is fading due to high standards of living, greater social mobility and redistribution of wealth and income (Buckley, 1958).
Lower class: This category comprises of individuals who work in low paying, non-unionized jobs that require few skills to perform. The defining characteristic among individuals of the lower class is their lack of property and dependence on wages for their livelihoods.
Characteristics of the class system
1. Status inconsistency: the degree of consistency and enslavement to an individual’s social standing across the class system is low. Individuals can either achieve upward or downward social mobility as a result of the effort that they put in accumulation of wealth and property.
2. Structural social mobility: The class system may in some cases experience major shifts in the social position of large numbers of people resulting from shifts in society, rather than individual efforts.
3. Ideological support for inequality: The stratification of society on the basis of class is usually backed by an ideological belief that legitimizes the social arrangement. Karl Marx asserts that the existence of class conflicts is responsible for economic progress. This argument was focused on unmasking factors that camouflage the real class contradictions. According to Marx, the ruling class controls the mental means of production and can thus use resources such as mass media and brute force to keep the lower classes under control.
The link between social classes and the systems of economic production
In early societies, individuals shared a common sense of understanding and occupational roles were equitably divided. As societies grew in complexity, stratification emerged and some members of society were elevated. This resulted in unequal distribution of resources and rewards, thereby creating a hierarchy based on the amount of resources one held.
Stratification in Agrarian Societies
Agrarian societies are defined by their reliance of use of land for agricultural subsistence farming and cultivation of crops using plows and draft animals. The agrarian revolution took place in Britain in the mid eighteenth century. A defining characteristic of agrarian societies is the stratification of individuals. Agrarian societies can be divided into; land owners and peasant farmers, on the basis of ownership, use and control of land.
The wealth in agrarian societies is unequally distributed with a small minority of landowners controlling the vast proportion of land resources and thus enjoying the surplus produced by the working peasants. An immense gap exists in power, prestige and privilege exists between the noble and the peasants. The social order in agrarian societies was divided into; the aristocratic class (landowners) and the plebian class.
Aristocratic class: This class is composed of the political and economic elite, which is incidentally the governing class. They are composed of a small proportion of the population but they claim ownership over vast amounts of property in the form of land. A majority of the surplus generated in agrarian societies usually finds its way to the hands of the small political and economic elite.
Peasant class: This class made up the bulk of the population that rarely owned any economic factors of production. The peasants in the British feudal system were allocated land or squattered by the landowner in return for the surplus of their agricultural production. Their occupation is mainly to do the menial labor in farms and ensure that they provide the needs of the upper class landowners.
In between the land owners and peasants evolved a class of merchants and retainers who played an important role in facilitating trade and exchange activities. Whereas some merchants amassed a lot of wealth in their trade activities, they were still accorded low prestige and political power (Buckley, 1958).
Stratification in the era of industrial revolution
The era of the industrial revolution in Britain led to evolution and increasing complexity in social stratification. The industrial revolution is characterized by the emergence of new technologies such as steam engines and factories that facilitated the transformation of raw materials into finished products. The period witnessed large scale rural to urban migration of individuals seeking employment and opportunities for development. Factory owners hired employees who worked long hours in terrible conditions. The exploitation of workers enabled factory owners to amass wealth thus increasing the gap between the rich and the poor (Tumin, 1985).
In comparison to agrarian societies, the industrial age societies offer better opportunities for individuals to improve their social standing and attain vertical mobility. The industrial revolution was accompanied by falling birth rates which ensured high demand for labor, technological advancement and increased educational opportunities which have led to the working class revolution.
The role of meritocracy in social stratification
Meritocracy refers to a concept of social stratification based on personal merit. This means that in a pure meritocracy, high levels of human effort will lead to high social standing while low levels of effort would condemn an individual to the lowest stratum of society (Marx, and Engels, 1978). The concept of a pure meritocracy is an ideal that cannot be achieved due to factors such as socialization, inheritance of wealth, conformance to social norms, interaction of economic systems and political systems as well as a variety of other factors that affect social standing.
Meritocracy is not applicable in the caste system of social stratification. In the caste system, individuals cannot change their caste even through the accumulation of property and wealth. This is referred to as the ideal of endogamy which restricts an individual to the caste in which they were born. Davis Moore, a sociological philosopher explained that meritocracy as a concept cannot be fully embodied in the caste system because of the unavoidable effects of parents on a child.
Meritocracy has a few applications in the class system, though pure meritocracy is still defeated by influences on the system. For instance, meritocracy can be applied in the area of academic qualification. Individuals born from different classes have nearly equal opportunities under the modern educational system to put effort in their academic studies and have equal chances of opportunity in the future. The modern class system is mediated by intense market competition between companies and laborers. Meritocracy in modern class systems is hard to achieve without economic democracy which would allow the poor and rich to have equal forums and influence on the economic system (Tumin, 1985).
Justifying inequality in social stratification
Capitalism theory: Capitalism is an economic system that has succeeded in creating social stratification whereby some members of society are extremely rich while the other extreme is poor. In between the two extremes lie the blurry lines of the working and middle class. Capitalism is a system that creates inequality in the allocation of economic resources (Buckley, 1958). Under this system, the concept of market competition is highly emphasized to create an illusion that all members of society fit in social classes as a result of equally competitive market processes and merit.
Marxism: Karl Marx, a sociological philosopher justifies the presence of inequality in society as a source of competition and thus economic progress. Karl Marx encouraged the unmasking of factors that may camouflage the inequalities in social stratification to create a sense of conflict and thus competition. However, the perception of inequality must be managed to ensure that the competition that ensues between members of different classes is positive in growing the economy (Marx, and Engels, 1978).
David Moore Thesis: According to Moore, stratification in society is the force that allows the most talented, qualified and functionally important to perform their duties conscientiously. This means that it is possible to compare different social positions in relation to their importance in society. This means that individuals who lie at the top of the hierarchy are functionally more important than those at the bottom of the hierarchy. The allocation of rewards and resources in society is based on the relative importance and level on the societal hierarchy (Collins, 1975).
Conclusion
The human condition has expressed massive amounts of inequality, with societies characterized by wealthy few and poor majorities. Governments of advanced economies are working to dispel the effects of economic and social inequality among societies. In this regard, governments are trying to change the rules of allocation of resources to create equitable economies where individuals have equal chances at success.
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Marx, K., and Engels, F. “Manifesto of the Communist Party.” In The Marx-Engels
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