social differentiation

In traditional Subarctic cultures, land and water, the sources of food, were not considered to be either individual or group property, yet nobody would usurp the privilege of a group that was currently exploiting a berry patch, beaver creek, or hunting range. Clothing,…

Social stratification was highly developed in some parts of the Southeast and insignificant in others. Although much has been written about the so-called caste systems among the tribes of the lower Mississippi, the Chitimachas appear to have been the only society to have possessed true…

…Northwest encouraged the development of social stratification. The region’s traditional cultures typically had a ruling elite that controlled use rights to corporately held or communal property, with a “house society” form of social organization. The best analogues for such cultures are generally agreed to be the medieval societies of Europe,…

…considered the basis of all social order. Each family was classified according to hereditary status—the chief categories being civilian, military, and artisan—and neighboring families of the same category were organized into groups for purposes of self-government and mutual help and surveillance. Civilians were grouped into “tithings” of 10 families, and…

…society continued to be highly stratified during the early Qing. Hereditary status groups ranged from the descendants of the imperial line down to the “mean people” at the bottom of the social ladder. Many professions were hereditary: bannermen, brewers, dyers, doctors, navigators, and Daoist priests usually passed on their occupations…

…a part of the Chinese social system.

…changes through time suggest increased social differentiation, but there also are periods, such as the Urnfield Culture, in which social differentiations are less obviously expressed in graves. The grave can, therefore, be used mainly to establish relative differentiation within one community rather than pronouncing absolute historical trends. One such study…

During the Iron Age, stratification became common and marked throughout Europe. Differences in wealth and status in terms of both individuals and households were reflected in graves as well as settlements. Settlements reveal internal division of houses according to size and function, and the population of any village was…

…the society had become so differentiated that some people lived a life protected from hard labor and physical toils while others worked extensively and had a poor diet.

Homeric society is stratified, from Zeus to the meanest beggar. To behave in accordance with one’s share is to behave in accordance with one’s status; even a beggar may go beyond his share, though he is likely to be punished for it. Zeus, the most powerful…

English society was organized hierarchically with a tightly defined ascending order of privileges and responsibilities. This hierarchy was as apparent in the family as it was in the state. In the family, as elsewhere, male domination was the rule; husbands ruled their wives, masters their servants, parents their children.…

Clear evidence of social differentiation appears in these cultures. Richly furnished burials (containing jewelry and sometimes weapons) have been uncovered in many areas, showing that a wealthy warrior elite was developing. Powerful chiefs became a standard feature of Germanic society, and archaeologists have uncovered the halls where they…

The political history of Europe is inevitably the history of privileged minorities. In states of the eastern and northern fringes, “the political nation”—comprising those individuals who had some notion of loyalties beyond the parish and civil duties, if only at a local level,…

A certain amount of hereditary social stratification was found in Micronesia, but its degree varied considerably from some of the smaller Carolinian atolls, which had nominal hereditary chiefs with little special power or wealth, to the high island of Yap, which had several ranked endogamous castes. Other cultures that showed…

Genealogical rank is a distinctive feature of Polynesian societies, and music and dance pay allegiance to the rank-based sociopolitical structure, reflecting and validating the system of social distinctions and interpersonal relationships. In these societies, where power resides in the office and the regime is long and…

Social stratification was an inherent feature of Polynesian society, and cultures generally had social classes that were clearly defined in terms of rights, duties, behaviour, and lifestyle.

…of Vanuatu was the graded society, a hierarchical system of ceremonies performed by men and women to attain greater prestige. The number of grades and their names, as well as the name of the system itself, varied from place to place, but in all areas the grade ceremonies included the…