Chapter 10: Comparing Systems of Stratification

Francis Batac
10.21.08.
Support in the death penalty is very high.
Support of religiosity is very high.
Politicians are more followers than leaders for this.

Hunting and Gathering Societies (most common form of “Simple Society”)

• Death was the major fact of life.
• Experienced chronic famines and only occasional feasts.
• Stratified? Not much in terms of $. (From Weber’s point of view).
o Age and sex
o Certainly stratified in terms of power and prestige (status)
• Small, poor. Threatened societies -> little stratification
AGRARIAN Societies- live by farming
• Has the ability to create permanency with AGRICULTURE
o Construct better shelters and homes
Allowed for surplus of food production
 Surplus = producing more than you need yourself
• The capacity for labor to produce surplus was the basis for
inequalities
Surplus is equal to Economic Stratification.
• Why?
 o Someone “owns” the field
 Division of labor
 There is power and status differences
 Some would own, some would sell; there is an
occupational prestige for hunting and gathering
societies. Everyone would have been doing the
same thing! Some different labor roles are
present.
• Surplus is equal to the specialization and urbanization.
o It freed up others to think, invent, cure illness, etc. do other
things
• Surplus supports a military, which is controlled by those in power
o Specialization = training and weapons, greater ability to
exploit
• Haves educate themselves- time to study the heavens, compose
poems, etc
o Cultural wall limits upward mobility
Industrial Societies is equivalent to less stratification.
• Marx witness the Industrial revolution. He saw the growth of cities,
the growth of wealth, production etc… and when he saw inequality
involve about of the industrial revolution, he predicted that the gap
between rich and poor would go so wide to the most extreme. At
the beginning the gap was present however… TOTALLY WRONG.
• Industrial societies = less stratification!
o Industrialization = increase in level of skill / training required
for the “average” job
 Less replaceable
 Less replaceability = greater power
 Industrialization “forced” upward mobility
 In South Africa, there was a caste system. You
had certain categories in South Africa who were
not allowed to have those positions.
Industrialization required certain categories to
open and force out the caste system and put in
the jobs that required skills and training.
  Industrialization = decline in influence of
ascription (in theory, societies can afford
education for all)
Correlations between stratification and industrialization (right out of the
book)
 Correlations with % of total national
income going to richest 10% of
families
Level of economic development -.61
Tv sets per 1000 population -.65
Per capita gross domestic product -.64
Telephones per 1000 population -.66
Average Life expectancy -.56
SOC INQ= find measures of inequality in developing countries

Mobility in the US
• Freedom and American Dream = Hard work can turn anyone into
anything he/she wants- True? Not necessarily.
• Mobility patterns in US similar to other industrialized (Lipset and
Bendix study in book)
o Some evidence that big jumps are more common in the US
(than those in Western Europe)
• Race and Class matter less than they used to, but they still matter
o Important we don’t forget this
 Remember the “lobster-lunch” kids
 Connections and all, still matter when you go to college.
10.24.08.
Status Attainment Model (Blau and Duncan)
• Strategy for studying intergenerational mobility patterns developed
in the 1960s
o The original study conducted by US Census Bureau
o Main finding from original study
 Status of father’s occupation is correlated with
status of son’s
 But not as much as people thought (r = .4)
 Father’s status affects son’s through education
 Why fathers and sons? This would have worked to study
women in the 1960s
 Most likely to study because they both worked
 Primary impact: is through EDUCATION
• What this means is that your parents in
their occupational status and resources and
education… the access through
education by parents influences and
affects your status
Education is the Key
• Should the rich and poor have equal access?
• Do Rich and Poor have equal access?
o Debate in Malibu
 o Webster has so much money coming in with all celebrity
backing.
o But what about inner-city schools in LA?
o They tried putting money earned from Malibu and
redistributing it to all schools
• Will $$$ save the day ?
o Not likely… but not a bad place to start
o Home situation still a powerful predictor of school
success
 Just the question, “do you parents read to you?” just
that one simple issue is a powerful predictor in doing
well in school.
Interesting studies from Chapter 10
• Mare and Tzeng (no longer discussed in Stark)—advantage to kids
if parents older
o Age of father correlates with education and occupational
prestige
 The older you are when you have children, the more
likely they are to attain occupational prestige in life
 If you took 2 fathers with exact status, but one is older
then the other, age seems to matter because it’s a
maturity issue
 AGE MATTERS for fathers as they raise their
children
o Effects remains even if we control for education, money,
occupation
o Older parents more mature, better parents
• Porter: Replication of Blau and Duncan in Canada
o Remarkably, correlation between father’s occupational
prestige and son’s = .4 (this is your magic number)
o Correlation between son’s education and son’s occupational
prestige = .6 (Same as US)
Summary of Chap 9 and 10
• People vary in their degree of property ($), power, prestige (status)
(Weber’s 3Ps)
 • Stratification is inevitable partly because stratification is functional;
some positions are more important, less replaceable
o But Conflict theory also equally important
 People will tend to act in self-interest: leads to
exploitation, increasing inequality
 Will tend to- this does not mean that you and I have to
always act in self-interest
Conclusions continued
• Simple societies, agrarian, industrialized
• Ascription (race, class, gender, etc.) related to “life chances but less
so in industrialized societies
o Throughout much of human history, ascription THE
determinant (CASTE)
 Correlation between father’s occupational status
and son’s about .4 in United States
What will the world do to you?
• Perrin’s opinion: no extra charge
o Marxism cannot work because
 Stratification is functional- replace ability does explain
stratification
 People will not work as hard for the common good
as they will for themselves
 Government = power… tend to use power in self-
interest
o But capitalism is not without its own problems
 We live in a world where to some degree we judged by
how much we produce, how much we make
 We are also encouraged to look out for #1?
 Marx warned of what capitalism does to interpersonal
relationships- the degree to which relationships are
defined by how much I can get from Francis !
 Ex. When you vote, do you vote self-interest?
 A: Goes both ways
World is divided into two kinds of people?
• Those who return their shopping carts, those who do not?
• Those who defend the weaker (or younger or poorer or) and those
who take advantage of the weaker (or…)
• Those who treat the people “below” them with disrespect (and the
people “above” with respect)
• Arthur Miller play, All My Sons
o If a man like that could do a think ike that then, anyone is
capable of doing anything?
o The point of a play: how can this good and honest man end
up doing violations for profit (knowing somewhere down the
road, it would cause death)? If he can do it, then anyone can
do anything. We will be put into positions that we are
• Power in the example of Jesus- love your neighbor as yourself!
Why does Professor look so sharp today? 10/11/2008
19:44:00
10.21.08
Chapter 10
Convo on Death Penalty
• Opinion on death penalty
• There are some sociology in there, but there can be some
discussion right now.
• This is my convo a bit of a sermon.
• Out of my comfort zone b/c
o We professors don’t typically advocate
o I am not a theologian
o I have never been a victim of a violent crime; nor has anyone
in my family
o We must approach topic with compassion to victims, victim
families… and with humility
What would Jesus drive?
• It’s a silly question.
How would Jesus answer…
• General social survey… “Do you favor or oppose the death penalty
for persons convicted of murder?”
o American public?
o 1976- 64 %
o 1993- 80%
o 2006- 69%
o Both McCain and Obama support this!
What do we know from the Bible?
 • Did the death penalty exist?
• Is there any indication that Jesus tried to influence political powers
to abolish the death penalty?
o Matthew 5:7
Matt 5:38-45 (Leviticus 24:17-21)- Love your enemies as yourself.
• Not a political statement
• Challenging attitude that leads to the death penalty
• We ignore this passage?
o Eric Liddell
John 8:3-11
• If anyone with you is without sin, be the one to stone the woman.
• Doodling on the ground
• Again, a chance to explicitly challenge death penalty and he does
not do so
• Posing a challenge to us?
o Most powerful passage …
DP… “How can you believe this stuff?”
• Redemption (Les Miserables)
• Forgiveness
• Compassion
• Love your neighbor as yourself
• Justice for the poor
• So what did Jesus write in the sand? (Leviticus 20:10)
 o Pro-death side stating: kill all adulterers
o Defenders acknowledge that he Bible condemns personal
revenge, vengeance
o But they make distinction between personal and state justice
o Desire for vengeance (“justice”) driving the DP?
o Do we Christians believe in redemption?
 Only for those who “stole a loaf of bread”
Hugh McCutcheon- expressed forgiveness for the killer of his father
“Christian nation.”
• 95% believe in God
• 20-40% attend church weekly
• Our political candidates
Compare this to “secular” Europe
Why is it WE who have the death penalty?
“Do you favor or oppose the death penalty for persons convicted of murder?”
“When ‘disapprove’ goes over 50%, our politicians will follow”
Finally...
• Do you favor or oppose the death penalty?
• Does the death penalty deter?
Grading 10/11/2008 19:44:00
Warning:
20-25 people dropping the class.
Test will be harder because you won’t have people pulling the mean down.

OH NO! But the good students stay, bad students leave, that affects the rest
of you.

Average Raw score = 55 / 70

Mean =78/79%

71 + 92 + 94 + 94+ = 341
341/ 4 = ~89+%
What should my costume be for 10/31?
10/11/2008 19:44:00
……

Pirate, ARR
Dr. Perrin?
Video Clip/ Dr. Seuss 10/11/2008 19:44:00
Daily Show Clip with President Bush
• If, If, If… Would things like parents’ status get into different high-
tier colleges?
• The left had ended up writing a document to fabricate and destroy
Bush’s image

Yertle the Turtle

• What’s the point?
o Yertle serves a function, but Dr. Seuss is taking a conflict
perspective
o Yertle in the end was exploited
o This is Dr. Seuss’ take on stratification
o Even Marxist lens
o Yertle fell, and all creatures are free

Social Class in the US

10/11/2008 19:44:00