Stratifaction
Social stratification pre-dates modern society and its roots can be traced back to the times of slavery in early civilizations such as Ancient Egypt and Persia and although slavery no longer exists the inequalities that stratification brings to individuals in society is still clearly evident in modern society, which is the viewpoint of conflict theorists such as the Marxists and the Feminists, however the sociological debate also means that consensus theorists such as Davis and Moore would have society believe that social stratification is in fact needed and indeed justified. Social Stratification lives at the core of society and discipline of Sociology. (Macionis and Plummer, Chapter 8, pg182) According to Macionis and Plummer (Sociology: A Global Introduction 2005) they define Social Stratification ass “ a system by which society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy.” The word stratification can be broken up and the word strata on its own means layers and is originally derived from geology perspective, it means layers from the earths core and in social stratification systems it can literally mean layers of people or classes in a hierarchy. (Haralambos and Holburn, Seventh edition) All social stratification systems share five basic principles each reflecting how these systems cause inequalities and consequences at an individual and at a collective level in society, no one social stratification system is unique, each system is a characteristic of the society it relates too and it is not simply a reflection of differences at an individual level, nor is it a new concept as afore mentioned but it is a system that has and will persist over generations and although stratification systems may not be an exact replica in each society, fundamentally stratification systems are universal albeit widely variable, they also incorporate ideological beliefs while also engendering shared identities. . (Macionis and Plummer, Chapter 8, pg182) When analyzing
Bibliography: J Macionis and K Plummer Sociology: A Global Introduction (2005) 3rd edition. Pearson Prentice Hall Haralambos and Holburn Sociology Themes and Perspectives 7th edition (2008) P,Taylor et al. Sociology in Focus (2002) Causeway Press LTD (http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/sep/28/social-class-university-data) Date accessed. 28/11/2012