Soci 205 Chapter 7

Front 1

Social stratification

Back 1

a system in which groups of people are divided into layers according to their relative property, prestige, and power. Does not refer to individuals. It is a way of ranking large groups of people into a hierarchy according to their relative privileges.

Front 2

slavery

Back 2

some individuals own other people

Front 3

What were the causes of slavery?

Back 3

debt, crime, war

Front 4

What were the conditions of slavery?

Back 4

-in some cases, slavery was temporary
-slavery was not necessarily inheritable
-slaves were not necessarily powerless and poor

Front 5

ideology

Back 5

beliefs that justify social arrangements
-leads to a picture of the world that makes current social arrangements seem inevitable, necessary, and fair

Front 6

caste system

Back 6

status is determined by birth and is lifelong

Front 7

endogamy

Back 7

marriage within their own group, and prohibit intermarriage

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ritual pollution

Back 8

to reduce contact between castes, they taught that contact with inferior castes contaminates the superior cause

Front 9

class system

Back 9

more open, and is based primarily on money or material possessions, which can be acquired
-can change their social status by what they achieve

Front 10

social mobility

Back 10

-a class system allows this
-movement up or down the class ladder

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means of production

Back 11

-the tools, factories, land, and investment capital used to produce wealth
-Marx concluded that social class depends on a single factor: people's relationship to the means of production

Front 12

Who were the 2 types of people according to Marx?

Back 12

bourgeoisie: capitalists, those who own the means of production

proletariat: workers, those who work for the owners

Front 13

class consciousness

Back 13

a shared identity based on their position in the means of production. They do not perceive themselves as exploited workers

Front 14

false class consciousness

Back 14

workers mistakenly thinking of themselves as capitalists

Front 15

social class

Back 15

Weber said that this was made up of property, prestige, and power

Front 16

Davis and Moore's Explanation

Back 16

2 functionalists conclude that the stratification of society is inevitable b/c:
1. Society must make certain that its positions are filled.
2. Some positions are more important than others.
3. The more important positions must be filled by the more qualified people.
4. To motivate the more qualified people to fill these positions, society must offer them greater rewards.

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What is Tumin's reasoning that the functionalist position on stratification is flawed?

Back 17

1. How do we know that the positions that offer the highest rewards are the most important?
2. If stratification worked as David and Moore described it, society would be a meritocracy.
3. If stratification is so functional, it ought to benefit almost everyone. Yet it is dysfunctional for many.

Front 18

meritocracy

Back 18

positions awarded on the basis of merit

Front 19

What is Mosca's conflict perspective?

Back 19

1. No society can exist unless it is organized. This requires leadership of some sort to coordinate people's actions and get society's work done.
2. Leadership (or political organization) means inequalities of power. Some people take leadership positions, while others follow.
3. Human nature is self-centered. Therefore, people in power will use their positions to seize greater rewards for themselves.

Front 20

What is Marx's conflict perspective?

Back 20

predicted that the workers would revolt. the day will come when class consciousness will overwhelm ideology

Front 21

What is Lenski's Synthesis?

Back 21

-suggested that surplus is the key
-functionalists are right when it comes to groups that don't accumulate a surplus, such as hunting and gathering societies
-when societies do accumulate a surplus, they fight over it, and the group that wins becomes elite

Front 22

divine rights of kings

Back 22

the idea that the king's authority comes directly from God

Front 23

How do elites control information and use technology?

Back 23

to maintain their positions of power, they try to control information
manipulate the media by releasing and withholding certain information
also controls the police and military and can give orders to crush a rebellion

Front 24

What are the three worlds of global stratification?

Back 24

First World: industrialized, capitalist nations
Second World: communist, socialist nations
Third World: any nation that did not fit in to the first 2 categories

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Most Industrialized Nations

Back 25

have 16% of world's population, but 31% of land

Front 26

Industrializing Nations

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have 16% of world's population, and 20% of land

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Least Industrialized Nations

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68% of population, with 49% of land-farming

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colonialism

Back 28

stresses that the countries that the industrialized first got the jump on the rest of the world. Beginning in Great Britain in 1750
-purpose was to establish economic colonies

Front 29

world system theory

Back 29

Wallerstein analyzed how industrialization led to 4 groups of nations

Front 30

What were the nations categorized into in the world system theory?

Back 30

First were the core nations (Britain, France, Holland, Germany) that industrialized first and became rich and powerful
Second were the semiperiphery
Third was the periphery, or fringe nations that developed even less
Fourth was the external area, the nations that were left out of the development of capitalism all together (Asia and Africa)

Front 31

globalization of capitalism

Back 31

the adoption of capitalism around the world has created extensive ties among the world's nations

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culture of poverty

Back 32

a way of life that perpetuates poverty from one generation to the next

Front 33

neocolonialism

Back 33

most industrialized nations turned to the international markets as a way to control the least industrialized nations

Front 34

multinational corporations

Back 34

companies that operate across many national boundaries, also help to maintain the global dominance of the Most Industrialized Nations. In some cases, multinational corporations exploit the Least Industrialized Nations

Front 35

favorable business climate

Back 35

low taxes and cheap labor