Exam 10: Class and Inequality

Karl Marx examined social inequality by distinguishing between which two distinct classes of people?

In a ranked society, what two characteristics are stratified?

A factory that manufactures cars for sale and land to grow food on are examples of:

In some societies, the social rank of each member is determined by who his or her parents are. What can we probably say about this society?

Which of the following is a system of power based on wealth, income, and status that creates an unequal distribution of a society's resources?

What is true about systems of class and inequality?

Class is not commonly discussed in the United States; yet, it is a system of stratification that profoundly affects peoples' lives. In what class position would you classify yourself and your family? What criteria did you use to determine your class position? Does your class position differ from that of your grandparents? What about your friends? What do you do to increase your social mobility? Do you think your efforts will improve your class position at some point in your lifetime? What other forms of social stratification affect your social mobility?

The work of anthropologist Leith Mullings has examined the connections between class, race, and gender, which resulted in the development of which useful analytical framework?

Egalitarian societies are likely to practice:

Aside from access to financial resources, what most influences an individual's life chances?

A young man decides to take an art history class, a topic in which he has been interested ever since his parents began taking him to museums when he was a child. He believes that art appreciation and knowledge are good qualities to have. What is the term Pierre Bourdieu coined to describe this young man's attitudes about classic art?

A chief in a ranked society performs an act of gift giving that shares accumulated wealth while also enhancing the chief's prestige. What do anthropologists call this process?

As a ritual ceremony, the potlatch serves to establish prestige and social status by demonstrating a chief's capacity for which of the following?

The concept of the American Dream emphasizes and promotes the notions of meritocracy and social mobility as central to both national identity and the experiences of U.S. citizens. These notions assume that all citizens have equal opportunity for upward social mobility regardless of current class position. What is meritocracy, and how does it relate to social mobility? Are both concepts experienced equally by U.S. citizens today regardless of class position? What are three examples of how class can affect individuals' experiences with meritocracy and social mobility? Given what you have read in the chapter on class and inequality, do you believe the American Dream is equally attainable to all U.S. citizens? Why or why not? Do you think the American Dream will become more equally attainable in the future? Why or why not?

Which of the following is true about inequality on a global level?

Briefly describe the "poverty as pathology" and the "poverty as a structural economic problem" approaches to poverty and evaluate their strengths and weaknesses. Which is a better explanation of the causes of poverty in the United States? Explain your conclusion.

How did Karl Marx refer to the group of people who lacked land and sold their labor?

Which of these usually results from the unequal distribution of a society's resources within a class system?

The Harlem Birthright Project revealed how health problems and infant mortality:

Pem Davidson Buck's Worked to the Bone (2001) found that in Kentucky,