Stratification

Stratification is the significant differences in wealth, power and prestige among different races, genders and classes within a society. Anthropological studies of the San, Yanomamo, Sherpas and Detroit residents show different levels of stratification.

The acquisition of wealth, power and prestige within the San society is by far the most equally distributed when compared to the remaining three cultures. Several reasons include: no monetary system (until wage labor was introduced to them during the 1970's), material possessions are not feasible because they must stay mobile due to limited local resources and avoidance of conflict, and most importantly, their culture is largely based on Nxaro - the gift giving relationships among San adults. The San do not have a political hierarchy system. Power is almost equally distributed among the small population in each band of residents. Men and women both share in laboring for food for their families; men mostly hunt and women mostly gather. Whenever a dispute does arise, a mediator is called upon. The San are the most egalitarian society of the four cultured studied.

In the Yanomamo society, wealth holds more importance than in the San society. Wealth, in addition to women, food and revenge, is fought over between men from different villages. Although resources are fairly limited much like the San, the Yanomamo grow limited amounts of crops and are more sedimentary. The Yanomano also do not practice a gift giving relationship among themselves. Power and prestige, however are values of great importance to the Yanomano. When a Yanomano male kills someone either physically or through "magical death", he is respected among his peers. Yanomano women do not have much power in their culture; they are not allowed to hold any political leadership, they are fought over by men, subjected to violence and rape, and expected to perform the majority of productive labor. The Yanomano society is largely based on violence and physical strength. Since men in general are stronger and more aggressive than women, it would seem natural to have a male dominating society in the Yanomano.

The Sherpas, on the other hand, do hold wealth to be important in their society. This was magnified when tourism and mountaineering became a major source of capital. Wealth, power and prestige are unequally divided among men and women in the Sherpa society. Only men are allowed to hold political office, boys receive more education than girls and the most lucrative jobs (mountaineering) are available to men only. Although there are inequalities between men and women, this has changed somewhat over time; opportunities for higher paying jobs are becoming available to women and they receive inheritance in the form of money, jewelry and household goods. Inequalities in land ownership and wealth among some families has become somewhat of a concern especially toward the latter half of the 20th century. These families made their fortunes mostly through trade and now employ large numbers of wage laborers.

The residents of the Detroit, when compared to the other three cultures studied, show the largest differences in wealth, power and prestige. The haves and have-nots separate the people studied in Hardigan's book. From there, class and race further divide them. An example would be Corktown, a neighborhood consisting of mostly white residents within a city populated by mostly black residents (political power is also white dominated in this neighborhood while the rest of Detroit is black dominated). Another example would be Briggs, a low-income neighborhood in Detroit that is comprised of both blacks and whites. Since the residents of Briggs are poor, different races are forced to live in poverty. Wealth, power and prestige play central roles in categorize the people examined in Hartigan's work.

It would seem from studying the four cultures, the more wealthy and powerful a society is, the more inequalities there are. We see that stratification actually increases as we went from a technologically primitive culture to the most advanced society on the planet. Although on the surface a culture may seem egalitarian, we must dig deeper in order to find the true relationships. In the neighborhoods of Briggs and Corktown, initially one might think the residents of Briggs are racists due to the verbal insults flung between blacks and whites. But upon further inspection it is the residents in Corktown that truly contribute to racial segregation and bigotry using the political power within their white enclave. One might conclude the division of a society increases proportionately with wealth, power and prestige.

I find this depressing.

QUESTION NO. 4

What is the most interesting and/or most useful thing you learned in cultural anthropology this semester?

During this semester in cultural anthropology, I learned many interesting facts