1. Social Stratification (Ch. 9)

2. Vocabulary Social stratification Slavery Indentured service
Caste system
Endogamy
Apartheid
Estate stratification system
Class system
Social mobility
Bourgeoisie
Proletariat
Class consciousness
False consciousness
Meritocracy
World system theory
Neo-colonialism

3. Systems of Social Stratification

4. Slavery

5. Slavery Ownership of some people by others
Been around for an extremely long time
Exodus 13:13 (The Message)
“Redeem every firstborn child among your sons. When the time comes and your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’, you tell him, ‘God brought us out of Egypt, out of a house of slavery, with a powerful hand…”

6. Slavery
“As long as the mind is enslaved, the body can never be free. Psychological freedom, a firm sense of self-esteem, is the most powerful weapon against the long night of physical slavery…” – Martin Luther King

7. Ancient Romans

8. Ancient Greeks

9. African Tribes

10. Americans?

11. Causes of slavery
Debt
Creditors enslaved people who couldn’t pay back their debts
Crime
Murderer was enslaved by the victim’s family for their sentence
War/Conquest
Conquered peoples became slaves after war

12. Conditions of slavery Sometimes, slavery was a temporary status
Slaves of the Israelites were set free in the jubilee years (occurred every 50 yrs.)
Roman slaves had the right to buy themselves out of slavery
Slavery was not always inheritable
Child of a slave in a rich family may end up adopted by the family, later end up an heir to the family inheritance

13. Conditions of slavery Slaves were not necessarily powerless and poor
Could accumulate property and rise to high positions in society
Could even become wealthy enough to own slaves while still being a slave

14. Evolution of Slavery in the New World
While most of the Caribbean had bonded slavery, the first type of slavery in the American colonies was known as indentured servitude
Poor people wanted to start a new life away from England, and thus, were paid to work on tobacco farms in Virginia
Most contract lengths were 5 years
Survival rate was less than 40% initially

15. Evolution of Slavery in the New World
If you did survive through the end of the contract, you were given a plot of land to start your own farm
Became future competitors of landowners
Eventually, there was higher demand for workers
Tried Native Americans, didn’t work too well
Africans became the prized slave, typically brought to the American colonies by the Dutch, English, Portuguese and Spanish

16. Evolution of Slavery in the New World
Most historians believe slavery led to the racism of African-Americans during the U.S. history from s
American slaveowners developed an ideology
Slaves were inferior
Slaves were not fully human
Africans were the best type of slaves to own

17. Evolution of Slavery in the New World
Slave states in U.S. made slavery inheritable
Children could be sold, bartered, traded
Illegal for slaves to hold meetings or leave his/her master’s property w/o a pass
U.S. in the mid-1900s
MS: Illegal for a white person and black person sit in the same seat of a car

18. Slavery Today Several African countries still practice slavery today
1980: Mauritania abolished slavery
1987: Sudan abolished slavery
Other forms of slavery are often sexual in nature
Slavery in China

19. Caste

20. Caste System Status is determined by birth and is lifelong
Low-status birth = low-status label for life
For the most part, you can’t get out of the status you’re born into
Many societies practice different forms of a caste system
Endogamy is the most common
Marrying w/i one’s group

21. Caste System – India Existed for almost 3,000 years
Based on Hindu religion
4 main castes
Each castes are subdivided into 2,000 sub-castes (jati)
Each jati has an occupational specialty
Washing clothes
Sharpening knives
Repairing shoes

22. Dalit  “The Untouchables”
Caste System – India
Caste
Occupation
Brahman
Priests, teachers
Kshatriya
Rulers and soldiers
Vaishya
Merchants and traders
Shudra
Peasants and laborers
Dalit  “The Untouchables”
Outcastes; degrading or polluting labor

23. Caste System – South Africa
SA originally est. by the Dutch in 1652
Minority group of white, native-born South Africans called “Afrikaaners” est. apartheid  legal separation of races
Racial Group
Classification
Europeans
Whites
Africans
Blacks
Coloureds
Mixed
Asians

24. Caste System – South Africa
Classifications determined:
Where people could live
Where people could work
Where could people go to school
By law, whites were not allowed to mix socially w/other groups
Apartheid as a legal system does not exist anymore, but SA still struggles w/a transition to non-apartheid system b/c of how long SA was under apartheid

25. Caste System – U.S. 1865 – Slavery abolished in the U.S.
s – Racial caste system est. in the U.S.
Whites were always considered to have a higher status than African-Americans
Upper class feared “pollution” from the lower class
Prohibited intermarriage
Demanded separate-but-equal facilities

26. Estate System Est. in Medieval Europe Estate Occupations First Estate
Nobility – families ruled the country
Second Estate
Clergy – Catholic Church was a major power during this time
Third Estate
Commoners – Serfs; worked the land for the 1st & 2nd estates

27. Estate System
Nobility practiced primogeniture  only 1st-born sons are allowed to inherit the land
Other sons had to find other ways to support themselves
Joining the clergy, military, or becoming a lawyer was popular

28. Determination of Social Class

29. Karl Marx Feudal system broke down  people moved to the city
Moved to the city  people worked in low paying jobs for factory owners
Owners of production  bourgeoisie
Workers of production  proletariat
People in different class develop class consciousness
Shared identity based on your position in life

30. Max Weber Social class is made up of: (1) Property
Includes those that control the means of production, but not necessarily own them
(2) Prestige
Not just based on property; could be ownership of other things
(3) Power
Ability to control others