Characteristics of Stratification:<\/span><\/h3>\nMelvin M. Tumin has mentioned the following characteristics of social stratification:<\/mark><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n- It is Social:<\/strong>\u00a0Stratification is social in the sense that it does not represent inequality which are biologically based. It is true that factors such as strength, intelligence, age, sex can often serve as the basis on which status are distinguished. But such differences by themselves are not sufficient to explain why some statuses receive more power, property and prestige than others. Biological traits do not determine social superiority and inferiority until they are socially recognised. For example, manager of an industry attains a dominant position not by physical strength, nor by his age, but by having socially defined traits. His education, training skills, experience, personality, character etc. are found to be more important than his biological qualities.<\/span><\/li>\n
- It is Ancient:<\/strong>\u00a0The stratification system is very old. Stratification was present even in the small wandering bands. Age and sex wear the main criteria of stratification. Difference between the rich and poor, powerful and humble, freemen and slaves was there in almost all the ancient civilisation. Ever since the time of Plato and Kautilya social philosopher have been deeply concerned with economic, social, political inequalities.<\/span><\/li>\n
- It is Universal:\u00a0<\/strong>Social stratification is universal. Difference between rich and poor, the \u2018haves\u2019 or \u2018have notes\u2019 is evident everywhere. Even in the non-literate societies stratification is very much present.<\/span><\/li>\n
- It is in diverse Forms:\u00a0<\/strong>Social stratification has never been uniform in all societies. The ancient Roman society was stratified into two strata: the Patricians and the Plebians .The Aryan society was divided into four Varnas: the Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and the Sudras, the ancient Greek society in to freemen and slaves, the ancient Chinese society into mandarins, merchants, Farmer and soldiers. Class and estate seem to be the general forms of stratification found in the modern world.<\/span><\/li>\n
- It is Consequential:\u00a0<\/strong>The stratification system has its own consequences. The most important, most desired and often the scarcest things in human life are distributed unequally because of stratification.\u00a0The system leads to two kind of consequences:<\/strong><\/span>\n
\n- Life chances :\u00a0<\/strong>Life chances refer to such things as infant mortality, longevity, physical and mental illness, marital conflict, separation and divorce.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Life style :\u00a0<\/strong>Life styles include the mode of housing, residential area, education, means of recreation, relation between parent and children, modes of conveyance and so on.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
Elements of Social Stratification:<\/span><\/h3>\nAll stratification systems have some common elements. These elements have been identified as differentiation, ranking, evaluation and rewarding. Here Tumin has been referred to discuss the elements of social stratification.<\/span><\/p>\nStatus Differentiation:<\/span><\/h4>\nStatus differentiation is the process by which social positions are determined and distinguished from one another by way Of associating a distinctive role, a set of rights and responsibilities such as father and mother.<\/span><\/p>\nStatus differentiation operates more effectively when:<\/span><\/h5>\n\n- Tasks are clearly defined.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Authority and responsibility are distinguished.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Mechanism for recruiting and training exists.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Adequate sanctions including rewards and punishment exist to motivate persons.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
Responsibilities, resources and rights are assigned to status not to particular individuals. For only by doing so societies can establish general and uniform rules or norms that will apply to many and diverse individuals who are to occupy the same status e.g. all the different women who will play the role of a<\/span>
\nparent. Differentiation is not independent process in itself. The most important criteria for understanding the process of differentiation is ranking.<\/span><\/p>\nRanking:<\/span><\/h4>\nRanking is done on the basis of:<\/span><\/h5>\n\n- Personal characteristics\u00a0<\/strong>that people are thought to need if they are to learn and perform the roles effectively such as intelligence, aggressiveness and politeness.<\/span><\/li>\n
- The skills and abilities\u00a0<\/strong>that are believed necessary for adequate role performance such, as surgical, numerical or linguistic skills.<\/span><\/li>\n
- General qualities of the task<\/strong>\u00a0e.g. difficulty, cleanliness, danger and so forth. Purpose of ranking is to identify the right person for the right position.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
Ranking\u00a0non-valuative<\/strong>\u00a0i.e. jobs are rated as harder or easier, cleaner or dirtier, safer or more dangerous and people are judged slower, smarter or more skillful than others without implying that some are socially more important and others less because of these characteristic. Ranking is a selective process in the sense that only some statuses are selected for comparative ranking and of all criteria of ranking only some are actually used in ranking process e.g. the status of FatherMother is not ranked.<\/span><\/p>\nEvaluation:<\/span><\/h4>\n\n- Differentiation and ranking are further solidified by the evaluation process. Whereas the ranking procedure pivots about the question of more of or less of, the evaluation process centres in the question better and worse. Evaluation is both a personal and societal attribute.<\/span><\/li>\n
- That is, individuals assign a relative worth, a degree of preference and a priority of desirability to<\/span>
\neverything. To the extent that evaluation is a learned quality, a consensus tends to develop within a culture individuals tend to share a common set of values. This value consensus is the societal dimension crucial to evaluation stratification.<\/span><\/li>\n- There are three dimensions of evaluation:<\/mark><\/strong><\/span>\n
\n- Prestige:<\/strong>\u00a0Which refers to honour and it involves the respectful behaviour. Radcliffe Brown says that among hunting societies three groups usually are accorded special prestige: the elderly, those with supernatural powers, those who have special personal attributes such as hunting skill. In the more advanced society, prestige is the commodity that is in scarce supply and it is, therefore, more valued.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Preferability:<\/strong>\u00a0Those positions i.e. status roles which are preferred by majority of I the people are evaluated higher e.g. \u201c. I would like to be a doctor.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n
- Popularity:<\/strong>\u00a0Those status roles which are popular, about which people know to be very prestigious are evaluated higher e.g. nowadays there is fashion among students to go for Engineering job. It is the most popular occupation.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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