Social Stratification in All Human Societies

Social Stratification in All Human Societies

As Davis and Moore stated, stratification exists in every known human

society, and all share certain functional prerequisites which must be

met if the system is to survive and operate efficiently. Therefore, in

my opinion, yes Social Stratification is an inevitable mechanism in

society because it keeps everything and everyone functioning as it

should.

Imagine a society without classes, were everyone earned the same

amount of money at work, the same amount of land to build a house on,

same importance in society, and the same amount of opportunities as

the other, then that would be what we call the Idealistic Society were

there would be no conflicts or inequalities. It would be the dream

society were everyone is happy to be the same as his neighbor. But we

all know that this is impossible due to many factors and ‘rules’ in

the structure of society itself, were social inequality plays an

important role in the running of said society.

Let’s start with the different types of jobs people in society have.

Jobs are one of the main factors in society which places people in

their own separate class. Although it is difficult, with Davis and

Moore’s theory, to show clearly which positions are functionally

important, for the fact that a position is highly rewarded does not

necessarily mean that it is functionally important. But the wage that

comes with the job clearly states that people deem it important. Davis

and Moore say that a jobs importance can be measured in two ways:

First is the degree to which a position is functionally unique, there

being no other positions that can perform the same ...

... middle of paper ...

...power between groups.

Social-conflict theorists say that rather than helping the society as

a whole, the social stratification only benefits certain groups while

taking away from the left over amounts. The productive system has

brought great disparities in our productive system.

In conclusion I believe that in today’s world structural-functionalism

theory is very curate and seems to be true in our everyday lives. The

media makes it clear to everyone that an education is the only way to

make t into the world. Also I agree with some of the conflict

theorists that say that those people who have power make it up the

social ladder, but in my opinion it is the people themselves who give

these power hungry people the importance and prestige they have, and

people can pull them down just as quickly as they pulled them up.