Another aspect that will also be examined is how racial, ethnic, gender, and social class issues influence the way in which the privileged or dominant groups are tied to the oppression of subordinate groups. And for more understanding of the impact of oppression on subordinate groups there need to be an examination of individuals and social forces in relation to various manifestations of oppression. Social inequality may be defined as a socially-defined categorization of people according to characteristics such as gender, age, class and ethnicity and how they are differentially placed with respect to access to a variety of social goods, such as the labour market and other sources of incomes, educational level and other influential status they represent. Social inequality draws a very ambiguous class distinction among members of the society like upper class, lower class and middle class. Consequently, selected groups who are more powerful hold the educational, production system and goods and services making it unequally distributed among society.
This group has many customs and traditions that we as Americans wouldn’t even think of; they drill holes in one’s teeth if they have none, then a certain medicine is put into these holes which is said to reduce tooth decay. They also believe that the human body is ugly and that its natural tendency is to debility and disease. As a result, they have shrines devoted to the purpose of averting these characteristics. All in all, their culture is to improve the body & mind through ritual practices and traditional beliefs. I think that the article really describes the Nacirema’s culture well and helps the reader understand the diversity of their culture.
The Social Construct of Race In this paper, I am going to describe how Sociologists view race as a social construct. I will discuss the history of race and how it became a very important part of society. I will further emphasize how Sociologists and society see race through the color of an individual, and how it has affected people. I will also point out how eugenics is transmitted through bloodlines, the racialization of a new identity, and the importance of being white. Sociologist Robert K. Merton’s theory points out two types of roles that we associate with and the different statuses we can give ourselves.
If I had to pick one I would move toward the eviormental approach to be more accurate. Race socially constructed and is something that is learned from those who are included in society. Bradley advances toward race and reasoning is in unity with the way we come to even know the definition of race. Even as the importance of race has been built by environmental surroundings of race, it is resistant and absorbed by environmental surroundings. I believe Bradley make s excellent points that fully support why race has become so important.
Examine the extent to which social divisions are socially constructed. Use either gender or ethnicity to construct and illustrate your argument. Society is constructed through several social divisions, one of these being divisions being gender. Gender can be defined as a ‘socially determined difference based upon the biological differences between the sexes’ (Marsh et al, 2006: 216). Fulcher & Scott (2011) believe gender to examine the differences between men and women in relation to feeling, thinking and behaving.
122 As a process, gender creates the social differences that define “woman” and “man.” In social interaction throughout their lives, individuals learn what is expected, see what is expected, act and react in expected ways, and thus simultaneously construct and maintain the gender order pg. 123 As part of a stratification system, gender ranks men above women of the same race and class pg. 123 The dominant categories are the hegemonic ideals, taken so for granted as the way things should be that white is not ordinarily thought of as race, middle class or men as a gender. The characteristics of these categories define the Other as that which lacks the valuable qualities the dominants exhibit. Pg.
How was the idea of social Darwinism applied by the elitist class to justify their collective wealth? Darwin’s theory was used as a ploy to justify dividing society by sex and race. Social Darwinism exerted a profound effect upon America’s social ideology and had a great impact in the American views of life. The Elitist class concluded that there are two types of race from which society comes from; the “Superior” and the “Inferior”. They formed the opinion that the superior races were hard working individuals that survive and flourish within the society.
Second, they look at how race and ethnicity are socially constructed. In essence, symbolic interactionists ask the question, “What happens when two people of different race or ethnicity come in contact with one another and how can such interracial or interethnic contact reduce hostility and conflict?” I personally find the symbolic
Gender or sex refers to the socially constructed categories of feminine and masculine which are the cultural identies and values that prescribe how men and women should behave. The social power relations based on those categories are distinct from the categories of biological sex (male or female) (Germov, 2009, p. 131). Gender refers to the social aspects of differences and hierarchies between male and female. (Macionis, 2008, p. 367). Gender is understood as a system of relations, a social product constantly negotiated and redefined that both constrains and provides opportunity for action.
But the discourse of race imprints its meaning on bodies; racial hierarchies work themselves out in a field of corporeal visibility. As a regime of visual imaging, the system of racial difference