ANT 252 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Tutsi, Folk Taxonomy, Hutu
Document Summary
Social stratification is any form of inequality characterized by regularly experienced unequal access to valued economic resources and/or prestige. Kinds of stratification: class is a kind of social stratification that restricts individuals" access to valued resources and prestige within a partially flexible system. In class systems, social mobility is possible although usually difficult: caste is a system of stratification that ranks people on the basis of their birth. People are born into a caste system at birth and cannot move to a higher rank. Social ranking systems: egalitarian societies are ones that lack formal social stratification although inequality based on age and gender may occur, ex. The !kung described in article 2 represent an example of egalitarian societies, as do the guarani discussed in article 8: rank societies are ones in which there is unequal access to prestige but not to valued economic resources. Societies characterized by big men, and in some cases chiefs, fit this model: ex.
