Exam 10: Class and Inequality

Systems of class stratify individuals' life chances and affect their possibilities for upward social

The movement of one's class position-whether upward or downward-in stratified societies is called

The text tells us that in areas with populous market towns where a small number of merchants and landholders managed to accumulate wealth,extreme stratification arose.This is likely because

Anthropologist Gregory Mantsios contends that the media play a significant role in hiding class stratification in the United States.His findings reveal that media focus

Egalitarian societies depend on sharing which of the following in order to ensure group success?

Contemporary economic relations in many societies today tend to be organized around the exchange of money for services rather than around patterns of reciprocity.However,patterns of reciprocity still exist today even within highly stratified societies.What are three examples of patterns of reciprocity that are likely to occur in highly stratified societies today,and what purpose do they serve within or between social groups? How does gift giving relate to patterns of reciprocity,and what may be some underlying motivations in gift giving that are related to group survival or benefit? Given the longevity of reciprocity as a social pattern within human evolutionary experience,do you think it will continue to be present within and among social groups in the future? Why or why not?

Countries such as Norway,Sweden,and Denmark are among those that have offered increasingly generous social benefits to their populations.What is the most likely result of this kind of action by the state?

Mullings's work using intersectionality emerges out of a long history of anthropological fieldwork that is increasingly

Class is a topic that is not commonly discussed among most people in the United States,and yet it is a system of stratification that continues to affect peoples' daily lives.How often and in what context do you talk about class issues with family and friends? In what class position would you classify yourself and your family? How do you know what category to use to identify your class position? Does your class position differ from that of your parents or grandparents? Why or why not? Does your class position differ from that of your friends? Why or why not? What types of efforts do you make to increase your social mobility,and do you think the efforts will indeed help you increase your class position at some point in your lifetime? Given what you know about your own class position,why do you think that class is not commonly talked about in U.S.society? What other types of social stratification are more commonly discussed in public,and how might they be drawing attention away from class issues?

Systems of class and inequality

Archaeological evidence suggests that hierarchy,violence,and aggression

The potlatch is a redistribution ceremony practiced among Native American groups,such as the Kwakiutl people of the Pacific Northwest.The potlatch serves both a practical and ceremonial function in that it helps redistribute resources for the benefit of the group and it establishes social status and prestige via one's capacity for generosity.As a gift-giving practice,the potlatch is an important ceremony for some ranked societies.Do similar types of gift-giving practices occur in your own society? What are two examples of ceremonies in your own society in which gift giving takes place? What is the function of gift giving in these two examples,and how does the act of gift giving benefit the giver,the receiver,and the social group generally? What happens if an individual does not give a gift in the two examples you highlight? What influences from within and outside of your society may be changing the way in which gift-giving practices are occurring in the ceremonies you mention? Do you think gift giving will remain a practice within these types of ceremonies in the future?

What common result occurs when patterns of social stratification emerge in the social organization of human populations?

When the Kwakiutl of the Pacific Northwest perform a potlatch,there may be times when the excess of gifts are actually destroyed rather than given away.This is done in order to

The review of economic data in the text underscores the growing inequality in the United States,and yet it remains true that class is rarely discussed.The author attributes this to both media and

The United States educational system currently uses something called tracking to match students to a course that is in line with their ability.One result of this is the emergence of AP Honors courses-advanced placement classes where the content is generally more academically demanding.One side effect of this process is that students (and their parents)who have an awareness of one aspect of Bourdieu's work are likely to gain an advantage years later.What aspect of Bourdieu's work are we referring to here?

Your best friend,who has recently graduated with honors from Harvard University,arrives at a party you're hosting.Despite being a total stranger to all of the guests,your friend is surrounded almost constantly by others throughout the entire evening.You're left feeling a little jealous because of this unexpected popularity.How would a theorist like Max Weber analyze this situation?

Pierre Bourdieu argued that in addition to a family's economic circumstances,two additional key factors affect an individual's social mobility within society.What are these two additional key factors,and how do they differ from each other? What are some examples that best illustrate these two key factors? How can these two factors limit one's social mobility? How can these two factors improve one's social mobility? How do you think these two factors affect your own social mobility in society? Are there individuals in societies who are not affected in any way by either of these factors? Please provide at least one example to support your argument.

Theorist Karl Marx argued that societies in the emerging capitalist economy of nineteenth-century Europe consisted of two distinct classes of people: those who own the means of production and those who must sell their labor in return for wages.What were these two distinct classes called? What other resources or factors distinguished these two classes,according to Marx? Does the two-class system espoused by Marx still hold relevancy in examining class systems in societies across the world today? Why or why not? Are there other classes that have developed since the time period during which Marx wrote? What is one example of a way in which Marx's theory could be applied to understanding societies living in a global economy today? Do you find Marx's theory helpful in understanding class and social inequality today? Why or why not?

The unequal distribution of a society's resources within a class system typically