1. Materialist vs Ideologist Theories
SOC 370: Social Change
Dr. Kimberly Martin

2. Ideological Explanations
Seeks explanations in the systems of shared beliefs that shape how people live, including how they make a living
Eisenstein’ explanation for gender stratification is a good example:
Patriarchy is the belief that men are superior to women and ought to be in charge of society
Patriarchial beliefs lead to gender stratification in society and the domination by men of women as a class of laborers who produce goods (children and products), and services (domestic labor) essential to society

3. Materialism
Seeks explanations for social organization in the economic realm in which people use resources in their environment to make a living.
Most famous materialist theorist is Marx
1. The basis of human society is how humans work on nature to produce the means of subsistence.
2. There is a division of labor into social classes based on property ownership where some people live from the labor of others.
3. The system of class division is dependent on the mode of production.
4. The mode of production is based on the level of the technology.
5. Society moves from stage to stage when the dominant class is displaced by a new emerging class, by overthrowing the "political shell" that enforces the old relations of production no longer corresponding to the new productive forces. (Class conflict)

4. Sanderson
Takes a materialist approach to social change, as have most sociologists and anthropologists
Sanderson believes that the main causal factors of social evolution are demographic, ecological, technological, and economic
All of these factors are materialistic in nature

5. Materialist Social Change Theories
Focus on
Subsistence strategies
Technological efficiency
Access to and control over resources
Access to and control over labor
Access to and control over surpluses
Distribution of goods and services
The development of social stratification (social classes)

6. Subsistence Strategies
Four General Types of Subsistence
Hunting & gathering/foraging societies
Horticultural societies
Pastoralist societies
Agricultural societies

7. Hunting and Gathering
Lived off naturally occurring plant and animal resources without replenishing or nurturing them in any way.
Lived in small groups of around individuals
Were usually highly mobile (nomadic and semi-nomadic (AKA transhumance))
Had very few possessions (digging stick, spear, bow and arrows, carrying bag)
Did not consider land and resources as ownable, believed in use-rights based on past experiences or supernatural nature of resources
Egalitarian (gender equality and no social classes)
Modern H&Gs live in marginal environments

8. Pastoralism
Depend on herd animals for their livelihood (goats, cattle, sheep, camels, llamas, reindeer, etc)
Lived in groups of around 100 individuals
Were usually mobile (nomadic and semi-nomadic (AKA transhumance))
Had very few possessions (only what can be packed on a pack animal )
Did not consider land and resources other than herds as ownable, believed in use-rights based on past experiences
Egalitarian (no social classes, but usually patriarchal)

9. Horticulture Depends on farming with hand tools only
Lived in groups of 100 to several thousand individuals
Were usually sedentary (villages or towns, or dispersed homesteads loosely connected into tribal or kin group)
Have more possessions because they are sedentary
Use rights or ownership of land and resources may be based on kin groups or individuals
May be egalitarian, ranked or stratified, depending on the amount of surplus that can be produced using hand tools only in their environment.

10. Agriculture
Depend on farming using ploughs, draught animals, irrigation or machinery
Live in groups consisting of thousands of individuals or larger
Are sedentary (towns and cities)
Society based on possessions as status symbols
Individual ownership of resources
Usually stratified with multiple social classes

11. Industrialization
Depends on mass production/factories (began rapid development with industrial revolution in England in 1600's).
Resulted from application of scientific knowledge first to agriculture and then to manufacturing (crop rotation, steam power, specialized labor, spinning wheel). Massive increases in productivity, surplus, population, settlement size, and proportion freed from agricultural labor. Increased division of labor increased output, increased output allowed more expansion of division of labor (spiral effect).   Erosion of the family/kinship as the building block of social organization and continuing erosion of traditional (agriculture-based) institutions.

12. Post Industrialization
Post Industrial Societies -  (Since the end of World War II)  
Socialism, automation & advanced technology, decrease in industrial jobs, growth of service economy, split in the service sector, general decline of jobs.

13. Elman Service’s Levels of Sociocultural Integration
Bands
Tribes
Chiefdoms
States
Empires

14. Bands Small (30-50 individuals) groups, Egalitarian groups,
Usually nomadic/semi-nomadic hunter/foragers,
Social organization based on personal kinship relationships,
Use reciprocity to distribute goods and services,
Gender and age division of labor

15. Tribes Small (100-500 individuals),
Egalitarian groups, usually nomadic/semi-nomadic or villages
Horticultural or pastoralists
Social organization based on lineage membership where lineages are not ranked
Distribution of goods and services through reciprocity
Part time economic specialization

16. Chiefdoms Medium-sized (1000’s of individuals),
Ranked or stratified groups,
Usually sedentary
Horticultural or pastoralists, occasionally hunters and gatherers/foragers
Social organization based on ranked lineages
Distribution of goods and services through redistribution
Part-time or some full time economic specialization

17. States Large (100,000 to millions of individuals), Stratified groups,
Urban settlements,
Agricultural subsistence
Social organization based on non-kin relationships
Distribution of goods and services through a market system (general purpose money)
Full time economic specialization/industrialization

18. Stratification
All states are stratified; Stratification is necessary for states.
However, not all stratified societies are states.

19. Empires
A state that has conquered and rules by force one or more other societies.
The Roman Empire
The Spanish Empire
The British Empire

20. Fried’s Materialism
Morton Fried’s Theory of Evolution of Societies through the development of Social Stratification
Egalitarian Societies = Bands/Tribes
Ranked Societies = Chiefdoms
Stratified Societies = States/Empires

21. Materialism
Unidirectional change/evolution from simple to complex technologies, from egalitarian to stratified societies
Stratification is found when surpluses are produced and are available to some and not to others
Concurrent changes in subsistence, technology, stratification, kinship and family structures, distribution systems, political and religious systems
Which is the cause and which the effect?
Is this teleological, progressive? Is it a representation of what we have seen happening? Have all societies evolved in the same ways?

22. Study Guide Ideological Explanations Agriculture Eisenstein Service
Materialist Explanations Bands
Marx Tribes
Subsistence strategies Chiefdoms
Technological efficiency States
Access to and control over resources Empires
Access to and control over labor Egalitarian
Access to and control over surpluses Ranked
Distribution of goods and services Stratified
Social Classes (Stratification) Fried
Hunting and Gathering Teleology
Pastoralism
Horticulture