Comparison And Contrast Of Social Stratification S

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RUNNING HEADER: Comparison and contrast of Social stratification Systems SS144-01 June 9, 2011 Comparison and contrast of Social stratification Systems Social stratification--the division of large numbers of people into layers according to their relative property, power and prestige; applies to both nations and to people within a nation, society or other group. People are broken down in to groups based on their privileges; every society stratifies its people, some societies have greater social inequalities than others do, which mean social stratification is universal. It does not matter where in the world a person lives, social stratification has more to do with property, power and prestige. There are three systems of social stratification: Slavery, caste and social class. Two of the three have their similarities and their differences, slavery and caste. (Henslin, 2010) Slavery is a form of social stratification that allows people to own other people. (Henslin, 2010) Those who own the property use humans for the benefit of themselves. Slavery is the most common form of social stratification, for slavery dates back to the early age B.C and involves the Israelites, Greeks, Romans and Africans-- were shipped to the United States in 1619 by British Colonies, and still exists in Africa, Asia and South America today. Three factors lead to slavery; debt, crime and war. (Henslin, 2010) Creditors would enslave those who were in debt forcing them to work for what they owed. A murderer or thief was forced to work for the victim’s family in order to compensate them for the loss. (Henslin, 2010) When a group defeated an opponent at war, they would enslave the conquered, killing off the men and taking the women into bondage. Women were and still are seen as valuable possessions, traded for sexual purposes, reproduction and labor. Caste is similar to
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