Grouping by Gender, Age, Common Interest and Class

1
Chapter 22

• Grouping by Gender, Age, Common Interest and Class

2
Chapter Preview

• What Principles Do People Use to Organize
  Societies?
• What Is Age Grading?
• What Are Common- Interest Associations?
• What Is Social Stratification?

3
Grouping by Gender

• All societies will have certain tasks that
  pertain to the sexes as mentioned in previous
  chapters.
• However, how the sexes are viewed may vary
  depending on the tribe. For example, the Native
  American Iroquois traditionally felt that women's
  work were somewhat less prestigious than that of
  a man, but they would acknowledge that women are
  the sustainers of life.

4
Grouping by Age

• Similar to grouping by gender is grouping by age.
• An age grade is an organized category of people
  based on age every individual passes through a
  series of such categories over his or her
  lifetime.
• An age set is a formally established group of
  people born during a certain time span who move
  through the series of age grade categories
  together.

5
Age Grouping Tiriki

• The Tiriki of Kenya exemplify the idea of age
  grades and sets.
• They have seven named age sets that are open for
  membership but only once the first has been
  completed.
• Each age set embraces a 15-year span and so 15x7
  sets equals 105 years of the males life.
• The Tiriki only have four age grades.

6
Tirikis Age Grades

• First Warrior
• Second Elder warrior
• Third Judicial Elders
• Fourth Ritual Elders

7
Common-interest Associations

• Common-interest associations result from an act
  of joining based on sharing particular
  activities, objectives, values, or beliefs.
• Result of social change and urbanization.
• Provide companionship and other functions such as
  learning a new language to safe working
  conditions.
• Not restricted to modern societies, also found in
  traditional societies.
• Membership may range from voluntary to legally
  compulsory.

8
Common-Interest Associations

• These can range in variety. Examples include
  street gangs, militia, sport clubs, churches, and
  political parties.
• In some areas it is found that women have not
  developed these associations to the complexity as
  men due to the patriarchal nature of their
  culture.
• Therefore, social scientists used to view womens
  associations as less developed than mens,
  although this is no longer true.

9
Common-interest Associations in the
Postindustrial Society

• In North America participation in common-interest
  groups has declined.
• People are less likely to socialize in a face to
  face manner as they might have in the past.
• Online associations have grown in popularity.
• What, if any, significant results could occur
  from this change?

10
Groupings in Society

• Generally two main types of grouping individuals
  within a society either equally or unequally.
• Stratified society- divided into categories of
  people who do not share equally in resources,
  influence, or prestige.
• Egalitarian society- societies in which everyone
  has about equal rank, access to, and power over
  basic resources. Less frequently found.

11
Types of Social Stratification

• Social class- a category of individuals in a
  stratified society who enjoy equal or nearly
  equal prestige according to the system of
  evaluation.
• These may be based on some of all of the
  following
• Gender
• Age
• Social class
• Caste

12
Caste Systems

• In societies which contain a caste system or a
  social class in which membership is determined by
  birth and fixed for life.
• Children automatically belong to their parents
  caste. They may have little to no opportunity to
  escape their parents caste system.
• They may however move through castes via
  reincarnation.

13
Stratification

• In the United States 70 of wealth is in the
  hands of 10 of the population.
• These statistics are from 2000, what do you think
  they might look like today?

14
Manifesting a Social Class

• There are several ways that a social class can
  manifest. The first is by verbal evaluation-what
  people say about other people in their society.
• Secondly through patterns of association- who
  interacts with whom, how, and in what context.
• The third is by symbolic indicators- certain
  activities or professions are indicative of class.

15
Social Mobility

• If a society is stratified it might be possible
  to have some flexibility within the ranks.
• Open-class systems are those with the easiest
  mobility.
• Degree of mobility is related to education or
  type of family organization that prevails in a
  society.
• Closed-class systems such as castes generally
  offer little to no mobility.
• Where the extended family is the norm, mobility
  tends to be severely limited.