Stratification and Social Institution Final

Nicholas Crone

Intro to Sociology

05/01/2017
 Description of Social Stratification

Social Stratification is the key factor into shaping people into different categories of a

society. The actual definition is the hierarchical arrangement of individuals according to wealth,

status and power (OLeary). Social Stratification is something you are born into, if your parents

are very wealthy and white when youre born, your social class is going to start off high and

youre going to be a lot more privileged. Of course as life goes on, social class can change and

several things can play into the change. Social class is similar to social inequality, it refers to

social groups based on similar jobs and careers that have the same access to economic, social,

and political resources (Trigilia). So basically, if youre in a high social class you are going to

have more power and influence on whats going and you are simply just more important. People

of the same social class commonly share the same beliefs in religion, politics, culture and pursue

common goals (Trigilia). A good real life example is capitalist societies, you have the owners of

the production and then you have the workers who are employed by the owners and are paid in

wage. It is argued that social class is controversial because people in a high social class can have

different social behavior such as lifestyle and political behavior such as voting and beliefs

(Trigilia).

Description of Social Institution

Every society is made up of some type of institution, there are several parts of a society that

makes everything work together as one. A society must be able to work together in order to

prevent chaos and to protect their members from inner and outer threats (Gale). An institution
needs to motivate its member to have responsibilities and duties that has a role in their culture for

it to be able to function. Sociologists have discovered five main institutions that fulfill a societys

most important and basic needs: the religion, family, economy, education, and the state (Gale).

One of the major institutions is family, a family is what continues society. Whenever a family

member is lost, there will be a new one to replace him or her. Families are typically large and the

parents job is to teach the young ones their role in society. In our society as Americans, going to

school is the first main important factor kids contribute. It is preparing for the future of the

society, these kids are the future so they want them to be well educated and learn how to be a

part of society as early as they can so theyll be prepared to take on roles when they are older.

Families also have social stratification because they have different social classes. Some

families are richer than others and some are poorer. This provides different social class; a family

in the upper class is going to have more money, different political views, a more luxurious

lifestyle and will be the people who are the bourgeoisie and are in charge of people in classes

below them. They typically have more political influence and power over the lower classes also.

Every other family that is below those who qualify as upper class can be referred to as the

working class are the people who play smaller but still major roles (Swann, Deumert, Lillis and

Mesthrie) They are the workers of the bourgeoisie but whether you are upper class or working

class, everyone plays a key role as an institution to keep society functioning.

Conflict Theory and Religion

Religion is a focal point in many societies, we all know there are different religions in

which believe in different things and often this causes a lot of conflict. It is no hidden fact that
one of the leading causes of violence around the world is religion. Lets look at the entire world

as a whole society, people want peace but within the past 20 years it has been very difficult

because of terrorism which is driven by religion. A sociologist would say certain religions

believe in what their religion practices only and they want the power of knowing and proving

they are right, that is called rectification (Langhorne). It has always been important for the

people of a religion to have the dominant religion in the world, when one religion based society

sees another society doing something that they strongly disagree with such as abortion, it causes

conflict (Langhorne). Religion is a major issue in the United States because there are so many

different cultures and societies which have different views. The best answer to solve this problem

is for religious groups to not fear freedom as much as they do and to be more accepting of

globalization. This is not as nearly as easy as it sounds because societies have been practicing

these religions for thousands of years and the more changes that come with globalization the

more they are going to resist with fury (Langhorne).

Functionalist Theory and Race

Race is based on the color of our skin and where we are from but though there exists

diversity among humans, there is only one human race (Manickam). Nobody should be based on

race for determining their role in society and it has gotten better over the years. Our founding

fathers labeled the United States The Land of the Free but yet they chained up Africans, put

them to work all day and called them their slaves. That doesnt sound very free. For years white

men owned these slaves and treated them like animals but enough was enough and slavery was

abolished. The blacks role in society back then was to be a slave and that has changed a lot.
Legally every race has the same rights as white people which mean everyone can have an equal

opportunity of role playing in society. Since everyone has the same rights, why do we see us

Americans still so segregated? There was a study done in California and it talks about the

diversification of colored skin to white skin people. An example is people of color own much

less property, including businesses and homes, and are far under-represented among managers

and professionals. The poverty rate of white people is 10% versus the people of color making up

blacks at 25% and Hispanic at 23%. Business owners are 89% white in California and out of

Californias 120 legislators to represent its state 79 are white. The median household wealth for

a white family is $97,000 versus the black family that is only $4,890 (Walker and Lodha). The

idea of the functionalist theory is how a societies interconnected system works together. How can

a society of mixed races work together if the difference between races so different? A resolution

to this problem could be to get more colored people involved with the government and to provide

more equal opportunities to colored people as well. The only problem is that we cant just give

away these things to qualified people, there has to be colored people who are capable of taking in

charge of these resolutions.

Reflection

My family has never been the richest, we have always got by with what we had and every

once in a while we got a little more extra. We have been different with my mom being gay and

sometimes it was rough because of peoples beliefs but we always got past it. Everyone goes

through challenges in life and some are more severe than others. I have always had to work for

what I wanted but not what I needed. Saying that, I have experienced social stratification in a
middle working class way. I believe that functionalism is the most true theory because in order

for society to function there has to be people over people. If everyone was equal with the amount

of money they earn then we would all be complacent and have no motivation or drive to excel

and move up the chain in life. Life would just be boring without competition.
 Works Cited

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Religion.(2006).InR.Langhorne,Theessentialsofglobalpolitics.London,UK:Routledge.

Race&ethnicity.(2013).InR.A.Walker,&S.K.Lodha,TheatlasofCalifornia:mappingthe
challengeofanewera.Berkeley,CA:UniversityofCaliforniaPress.

Social stratification. (2007). In Z. O'Leary, The social science jargon-buster. London, UK: Sage

UK.

SocialClass.(2004).InJ.Swann,A.Deumert,T.Lillis,&et.al.,Adictionaryof

sociolinguistics.Edinburg,UK:EdinburghUniversityPress.

Trigilia, C., & Trigilia. (2011). Class, Social. In B. Badie, D. Berg-Schlosser, & L. Morlino,

International encyclopedia of political science. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.