What is the basis for the recognition of difference within and between social groups? – what is the role of culture?
What is the relationship of recognized social differences to political power and inequality? – what are the processes of society? (social stratification)
CULTURE & SOCIETY
Geertz (1973) on culture -- "a historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life“
Geertz on society – “the pattern of social interaction”
Culture & society – “capable of wide range of modes of integration”
Geertz on Society and Culture Again…
Culture – logico-meaningful integration
A unity of style, of logical implication, of meaning and value
Fabric of meaning
Society – causal-functional integration
Kind of integration one finds in an organism
All parts united in a single causal web
Keep the system going
Actually existing network of social relations
Social Differences & Society
shift from homogeneous kin based societies (mechanic) to heterogeneous societies of associations (organic) involves increased social differentiation
Increased differentiation & integration = INCREASED SOCIAL STRATIFICATION (social differences)
Society & Social Stratification
inequality in society
the unequal distribution of goods and services, rights and obligations, power and prestige
all attributes of positions in society, not attributes of individuals
Stratified society is:
when a society exhibits stratification it means that there are significant breaks in the distribution of goods services, rights obligations power prestige
as a result of which are formed collectivities or groups we call strata
Stratification & Society
Integration and equilibrium
Society is a system of action
stratification is a generalized aspect of the structure of all social systems
Social Strata emerge from the process of differentiation and evaluation in the form of social statuses, differences, and classes
Stratification & Social Power
Power – domination and the process of legitimization by which a dominant status group becomes accepted as dominant
pre-industrial society – power based on traditional respect or allegiance to charismatic leaders
industrial society – power based on legality, consensus on the rules and procedures concerning the selection and limits of power
3 TYPES OF SOCIETIES
egalitarian societies - no social groups having greater access to economic resources, power, or prestige - usually foragers
rank societies - do not have unequal access to economic resources or to power, but they do contain social groups having unequal access to prestige
class societies - unequal access to all 3 advantages, economic resources, power, prestige
open & closed class systems - the extent to which mobility occurs allowing people to pass through inequalities
Understanding Social Differences: Status
status - ascribed & achieved
ascribed status - social positions that people hold by virtue of birth
sex, age, family relationships, birth into class or caste
achieved status - social positions attained as a result of individual action
shift from homogenous kin based societies to heterogeneous society of associations involves growth in importance of achieved status
Race & Society
There are no biological human races
Racial social stratification is built upon idea that social differences are linked with hereditary characteristics which differ between races
As indicated by perceived physical differences and cloaked in the language of biology
Racism – systematic social and political bias based on idea of race
Operates as a form of class
American Anthropological Assoc. statement on race
“Evidence from the analysis of genetics (e.g., DNA) indicates that most physical variation, about 94%, lies within so-called racial groups.
Conventional geographic ‘racial’ groupings differ from one another only in about 6% of their genes….
‘Race’ thus evolved as a world view, a body of prejudgments that distorts our ideas about human differences and group behavior….
The ‘racial’ world view was invented to assign some groups to perpetual low status, while others were permitted access to privilege, power, and wealth”
Race: A Brief History
Distribution of Human Skin Color before 1400 A.D.
Race & Age of Discovery
Race did not exist until the European expansion and exploration beginning 1500
ancient Greeks -- first among civilized nations around the Mediterranean
did not link physical appearance and cultural attainment.
Ancient Greeks granted civilized status to the Nile Valley Nubians who were among the darkest skinned people they knew
did not grant it to European barbarians to the north who were lighter skinned than they were
People were divided on the basis of religion, class or language or status
Europe & Race before Age of Discovery
up until 14th cent. in Europe cultural & social evolution based on the idea of progress from kinbased societies to civil society through governance & law
after 16th cent. in Europe dispositions of blood distinguished the character of difference (racist notions of social & cultural evolution)
After 1500
European exploration – increased contact with other human societies
exploration turned to conquest and Ethnocentric feeling of European superiority
1795 Johann Friedrich Blumenbach: ”race” classifications
Malayan
Ethiopian
American
Mongolian
Caucasian
coined the term "Caucasian" because he believed that the Caucasus region of Asia Minor produced "the most beautiful race of men".
1830s: Philadelphia doctor and polygenist Samuel Morton
collected hundreds of human skulls of known races
measured them by filling the skulls with lead pellets and then pouring the pellets into a glass measuring cup
tables assign the highest brain capacity to Europeans (with the English highest of all)
Second rank goes to Chinese, third to Southeast Asians and Polynesians, fourth to American Indians, and last place to Africans and Australian aborigines.
work establish the “scientific basis” for physical anthropology but also the idea that race is inherently biological
Stephen Jay Gould:
“The Mis-measure of Man” (1981)
Re-analyzed Morton’s data
Morton’s racist bias -- prevented identification of fully overlapping measurements among the racial skull samples he used
Race & Social Status
Operates as an ASCRIBED status
Race and racial differences as a state of nature
Sociobiological notion that racism derives from genes that cause groups to compete against those who are genetically different
Nature outside of culture
Phenotype & blood quantum
Social Status and Affects of “Race”
Life chances
Where you live
How you are treated
Access to wealth, power and prestige
Access to education, housing, and other valued resources
Life expectancy
Society & First Nation Health
Compared with the Canadian population in 1996, the First Nations population (on and off reserves) rated lower on all educational attainment.
Among First Nations, the 1996 labour participation rate was 59% and the employment rate was 43%.
Rates for Canada as a whole were 68% and 62%, respectively.
First Nations unemployment rate was twice the Canadian rate in 1996.
Society & First Nation health
56.9% of homes were considered adequate in 1999--00.
33.6% of First Nations communities had at least 90% of their homes connected to a community sewage disposal system.
In 1999, 65 First Nations and Inuit communities were under a boil water advisory for varying lengths of time
Many communicable diseases can be traced to poor water quality
Variation in recognized “racial” types
US
Bi-racial society
Japan
a nation whose population is greater than 99% born in Japan
racism in Japan is often not directed so much against people of a particular race or ethnic group but rather against those who are non-Japanese
purity
Brazil
long history with slavery and as a recipient of emigrants from all over the world
racial paradise image
process of whitening -- racial and cultural means through which outsiders became "Brazilian"
While racial divisions in Brazil are not clearly defined, class lines are
Canada
Vertical mosaic
Social “Races”
Geertz (1973) on culture -- "a historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life“
Geertz on society – “the pattern of social interaction”
Culture & society – “capable of wide range of modes of integration”
Ethnicity: A Cultural Logic of Race?
ethnicity forged in the process of historical time
subject to shifts in meaning
shifts in referents or markers of ethnic identity
subject to political manipulations
ethnic identity is not a function of primordial ties, although it may be described as such
always the genesis of specific historical forces that are simultaneously structural & cultural
Building Blocks of Ethnicity/Ethnic Identity
associated with distinctions between language, religion, historical experience, geographic isolation, kinship, notions of race (phenotype)
may include collective name, belief in common descent, sense of solidarity, association with a specific territory, clothing, house types, personal adornment, food, technology, economic activities, general lifestyle
cultural markers of difference must be visible to members and non-members
valued markers of difference by insiders may become comic or derided by outsiders
caricature and exaggeration frequently mark outsider depictions of boundary mechanisms
where there is a group there is some sort of boundary
where there are boundaries there are mechanisms for maintaining boundaries
cultural markers of difference that must be visible to members and non-members
Code switching
Marked and unmarked categories
Boundary maintenance
The ethnic boundary canalizes social life
Boundaries may also be territorial
Distinctions between us and them criteria for judgment of value and performance and restrictions on interactions
Allows for the persistence of cultural differences
Identities are signaled as well as embraced
All ethnic groups in a poly-ethnic society act to maintain dichotomies and differences
ethnogenesis
fluidity of ethnic identity
ethnic groups vanish, people move between ethnic groups, new ethnic groups come into existence
ethnogenesis
emergence of new ethnic group, part of existing group splits & forms new ethnic group, members of two or more groups fuse
Ethnicity, Culture, and Society
ethnicity is founded upon structural inequities among dissimilar groups into a single political entity -- society
based on cultural differences & similarities perceived as shared -- culture
Ethnicity and class
Many poly-ethnic societies are ranked according to ethnic membership
May be a high correlation between ethnicity and class
Ethnicity as identity formation and political organization
Ethnic groups – those human groups that entertain a SUBJECTIVE belief in their common descent because of similarities of physical type or of customs or of both
feelings of ethnicity & associated behavior vary in intensity within groups (& persons) over time & space
Belief in group affinity can have important consequences for the formation of a political community
“Ethnic” Groups
Geertz (1973) on culture -- "a historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life“
Geertz on society – “the pattern of social interaction”
Culture & society – “capable of wide range of modes of integration”
