Social Inequality from Preindustrial to Industrial Society
1. Social Differentiation and Social Change:
From Preindustrial to Industrial Societies
History of Civilization = History of Stratification
2.
3. Materialist vs. Ideological Conceptions
of History
Material Conditions
What can also be called the material infrastructure
consists of the basic raw materials and social forms
pertinent to human survival and adaptation. A
society’s material infrastructure is its most basic
component in the sense that without it, physical
survival is literally impossible (or highly improbable).
Consists of:
Technology, Economy, Ecology, Demography
4. Materialist vs. Ideological Conceptions
of History
Ideological Conditions
Involves the patterned ways in which the members of a
society think, conceptualize, evaluate, and feel, as
opposed to what they actually do. It refers to thought,
ideas, etc.
It has five components: General Ideology, Religion,
Science, Art, and Literature
5. Materialist vs. Ideological Conceptions
of History
Relationship between material and ideological
structures:
The material conditions of society is what
drives sociocultural phenomena, e.g. social change
and stratification.
Ideas are important, but the types and kinds of
ideas people have are rooted in the material
conditions.
6.
7. Mode of production = A society’s combined level of
technological development combined with the overall
organization of its economy, including the division of labor.
How does social change occur? Societies change by resolving
their “internal contradictions.”
Mode of Production
Type of Society Means Form of
Ownership
Degree of
Inequality
1. Primitive
Communism
H/G Collective Low
2. Ancient Society Agriculture Private High
3. Feudalism Agriculture Private High
4. Capitalism Industrial Private High
5. Socialism Industrial Collective Low
Marx and Social Change
8. Lenski’s (1966) Theory of Stratification: ECONOMIC SURPLUS
Scarce and valued goods are distributed according to need and
power.
In subsistence-only conditions, need prevails. In surplus conditions,
power prevails.
Power is exercised in many ways and according to the abilities of the
power-holders. Violent force is the most effective and dominant
form.
When societies began to produce an economic surplus, i.e. the
economic goods above and beyond subsistence level, stratification
began.
The origins can be traced to the beginnings of larger scale social
systems above hunter gatherer, and can be directly observable in
agrarian societies.
11. Types of Societies
Hunter-
Gatherer
Pastoralists Horticulturalists Agrarian
Political
Organization
Communal
X
Specialized Part-
Time Politicians
X
(varies)
X X
Specialized Full-
Time Politicians
X (varies) X
Male Dominance
of…
X X X X
15. Transition to Stratification
Neolithic revolution = a name for the transition from hunter
gatherer societies to the beginnings of horticultural and
agricultural societies. Not so much a revolution as a slow,
gradual change.
16. Consequences of the Neolithic Revolution that
led to social stratification
Dramatic population increase
Development of complex human organizations,
including separate institutions for political,
economic, military, and religion
Development of slavery
Decline in the status of women
