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... while anthropologists make quite clear distinctions between age grades and gender. Some societies are not stratified at all but are egalitarian, meaning that all people in the society have equal access to economic power and prestige resources, dependent only upon their age grade or gender
In some societies people have equal access to economic resources and even power bur not to prestige. These are rank societies and are quite often pastoral or horticultural. In others, all factors are unequally distributed. Economic resources, power, and rank are reserved for people of a particular group inside of the society. In many instances there is a sliding scale of who has power, economic resources, and prestige. It is interesting to note that the three do not always go together. This is the class system A class being a group of people who have almost equal access to the above three factors An open class system allows some mobility for members of a class to move to another class. This can be an upward or downward movement, although the movement into the upper class is generally restricted. Closed class systems are called caste systems. Membership is controlled by birth. There is technically not supposed to be any mobility. You cannot marry outside of the group, and children cannot acquire another caste status. In most caste systems the groupings are determined by occupation. Certain occupations garner more money, respect, and power than others. In this type of system every individual knows what is expected of him or her and is better satisfied with his or her role in the society India's caste system is probably the most famous, but other societies have at least parts of caste systems. The United States, in the past, treated blacks as if they were in a lower caste group, the Japanese had the Eta, who functioned much as the untouchables of India, and in Rwanda the Tutsi's were the ruling caste, forcing the Hutu's to farm on Tutsi land. Other examples exist all over the world. Why has stratification emerged over most of the world? Three theories exist to explain this phenomenon. One theory proposed by Marshall Sahlins, is that social stratification developed as productivity increased and surpluses were produced. Another states that stratification can only develop when people have investments in land or technology and therefore cannot move away from leaders they do not like Finally, it is theorized by C. K. Meek that population pressure brings about differential access to economic resources. From James Duvall, III, Study Guide for Cultural Anthropology. 1996.
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