A system of social inequality in which social groups occupy different positions (or strata) based on their unequal access to and ownership of material, political, and cultural (eg educational) resources. Social stratification is never a random process, but a product of economic and social relations that allocate people to specific positions within a structured social hierarchy.
In sociology, social stratification is the hierarchical arrangement of social classes, castes, and strata within a society. While these hierarchies are not universal to all societies, they are the norm among state-level cultures (as distinguished from hunter-gatherers or other social arrangements).
Critical overview
Social stratification is regarded quite differently by the principal perspectives of sociology. Proponents of structural-functional analysis suggest that since social stratification exists in most state societies, a hierarchy must therefore be beneficial in helping to stabilize their existence. Conflict theorists consider the inaccessibility of resources and lack of social mobility in many stratified societies. However, some conflict theorists, mainly Max Weber and his followers, also critique Marx's view and point out that social stratification is not purely based on economic inequalities but is equally shaped by status and power differentials.
Non-stratified societies
Anthropologists have confirmed that social stratification is not universal as once thought. Non-stratified egalitarian societies exist which have little or no concept of social hierarchy, political or economic status, class, or even permanent leadership. Also known as acephalous (or "headless") societies, the best examples of egalitarian cultures all have hunter-gatherer economies, although not all hunter-gatherers can be considered egalitarian.
Kinship-orientation
Anthropologists identify egalitarian cultures as "Kinship-oriented," because they value social harmony more than wealth or status. Kinship-oriented cultures actively work to prevent social hierarchies from developing which could lead to conflict and instability.
Another example is the Indigenous Australians of Northwest Arnhem Land (and perhaps elsewhere in Australia), who have arranged their entire society, spirituality, and economy around a kind of gift economy called renunciation. In this arrangement, every person is expected to give everything of any consumable resource they have to any other person who needs or lacks it at the time.
Marx's inspiration
Lewis Henry Morgan's accounts of the egalitarian natives of Hawaii formed part of Marx's inspiration for Communism. Many people argue that these are less important issues in an egalitarian society, where relative material and political equality result naturally from well-maintained, mostly non-competitive social relationships (kinship).
The basic differences in attitude between Kinship-oriented and Economically-oriented societies may, in part, explain some of the difficulties met when implementing socialist ideals in an already stratified culture.
Weber's inspiration
Weber built on Marx's ideas, arriving at the three-component theory of stratification and the concept of life chances.
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