Sociology 1020 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Agrarian Society, Social Stratification, Social Mobility

• School: Western University
• Department: Sociology
• Course: Sociology 1020
• Professor: Rebecca Collins- Nelsen

Document Summary

We see that some categories of passengers had much better odds of survival than others. In the hunting and gathering society, everyone had the same social standing. Social stratification: a system by which a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy. 4 basic principles: trait of society not based on individual differences, carries over from generation to generation. Occurs everywhere in the world but varies slightly. Involves not just inequality but beliefs as well: universal but variable. Rationalized in every society (hierarchy is rationalized and believed to be fair) Social mobility: (cid:272)ha(cid:374)ges i(cid:374) people(cid:859)s positio(cid:374) i(cid:374) a s(cid:455)ste(cid:373) of so(cid:272)ial stratifi(cid:272)atio(cid:374) - social mobility may be upward, downward, or horizontal. Closed systems allow for little change in social position. Open systems allow for more social mobility. Class is considered to be more open. A caste system - a social stratification based on ascription or birth: little to no social mobility, entire future is predetermined, eg.