Chapter 14 Chapter Outline & Key Points

Chapter Summary

Most contemporary societies have various forms of stratification, or hierarchies of individuals. Those in authority may make the claim that such hierarchies are inevitable or natural; they are thus subject to the use of naturalizing discourses. However, anthropologists recognize that such categories are cultural inventions. As such, forms of stratification tend to differ between societies. Many, however, are linked with the rise of European colonialism and capitalism. Gender stratification draws on sexual imagery to create and rank categories of people. Stratification by gender tends to subordinate phenotypic females to phenotypic males, but it is often applied more widely to other categories of people, artifacts or events.

The concept of class has multiple meanings. Europeans tended to view class boundaries as closed and rigid, whereas North Americans tend to view them as more fluid. In India, caste stratification has historically been the norm, and castes are viewed as rigid statuses that one is born into. Local caste divisions, called jatis, in rural India adhere to rules of purity and pollution that are defined in terms of the occupations that members perform, the foods they eat, and the individuals that they can marry. In large cities in India, individuals use caste to promote economic well-being.

The contemporary concept of race developed in the context of European exploration and conquest beginning in the fifteenth century as light-skinned Europeans came to rule over darker-skinned peoples in different parts of the world. The so-called races whose boundaries were forged during the nineteenth century are imagined communities; human biological variation does not naturally clump into separate populations with stable boundaries. Despite variations in opinions and practices regarding race over the centuries, a global hierarchy persists in which whiteness symbolizes high status and blackness symbolizes the social bottom.

Many anthropologists are interested in the relationship between ethnicity and colonial domination, when different groups were subordinated within a single political struggle under conditions of inequality. When dominant ethnic groups feel threatened, they may attempt to stigmatize subordinate groups by “racializing” them.

Discussions of human rights have intensified as participants in the discourse continue to challenge traditional concepts of what it is to be human, centering on the argument about the right to one’s culture. The ongoing challenge is the degree to which Western notions of rights as focused on the individual as opposed to social duties may be valid globally; pushing the discourse of humanitarianism to the broader rights of social justice is another challenge for anthropologists and human rights advocates.

Learning Objectives

In this chapter, the student should learn to do the following:

• recognize that various forms of social stratification are cultural inventions;
• understand how and why naturalizing discourses are used by those in authority to justify various hierarchies, like class or race;
• understand how ethnicity and colonialism can emerge in opposition to each other;
• outline and discuss the different forms that racism can take;
• contrast the growing call for human rights to encompass both individual rights and those of the broader culture to exist;
• understand how the broader discourse of humanitarianism must also bring with it a discourse on human rights and social justice.