Week 16: Anthropology 11--Introduction to Cultural Anthropology

Lecture Notes for Chapter 11:

Grouping by Sex, Age, Common Interest, and Class  (296-321)

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Professor John Wolford
Department of Anthropology
University of Missouri-St. Louis

Email: wolfordj@msx.umsl.edu


 
Definitions for Chapter 11 Outline for Chapter 11 Anthro 11 homepage GO TO BOTTOM OF THE PAGE

Links to outside web pages:
[Wolford's A11 Web Page]  [My Gateway Page]  [Reserves Page]  [Readings and Class Schedule]


Links to Section Headings inside this page:

Grouping By Gender  |  Age Grouping  |  Common Interest Associations  |  Social Stratification  |


The important questions Haviland cites for you to consider while reading this chapter:
 

What principles, besides kinship and marriage, do people use to organize societies?

What is age grading?

What are common-interest associations?

What is social stratification?

Notes for William A. Haviland, 

Cultural Anthropology, 10th edition: 

Chapter 11: 

Grouping by Sex, Age, Common Interest, and Class  (296-321)

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[INTRODUCTION]

• the purpose for this chapter is to provide some sort of balance to the perspective that anthropologists place on the principles behind social organization

• anthropologists tend to have placed a predominant emphasis on kinship and marriage as organizing principles behind social organization

 
• these are very important organizing principles, universally found, basic


• however, other principles apply to the way humans organize themselves socially, and they need to be given an evaluative look

 
• these include sex (gender roles), age, common interest, class, [and ethnicity] Return to Top

Grouping by Gender (298-299)
• Iroquois example  
• matrilineal society, matrilocal

• women were in charge of the economy, of the house, of subsistence, of inheritance

• men in charge of hunting, warring, raiding, trading, diplomacy

• when men were in the village, they lived with and slept with the women

• men and women were separate-but-equal

• low incidence of intra-group rate

 
• but high incidence of rape outside of group


• Mundurucu example (Brazilian Amazon)

 
• men lived separately from the women  
• men and boys older than 13 live together

• all females and all children under 13 live together

• women's buildings are grouped around the men's


• separation validated by mythic belief in power struggle over the sacred trumpets (represents the generative power of women) which women lost because they were not able to hunt, which was necessary to satisfy the trumpet spirits' desire for meat

 
• the trumpet is kept in the men's lodge

• if a woman enters to look at it, she may be gang-raped


• great hostility and fear between men and women


• Haviland suggests that the Mundurucu are like people in American society

 
• how is this parallel supportable?  
• rule by men replacing matriarchal rule was held by many 19th century scholars

• difference: women in Mundurucu society have had more control over their economic life than women in traditional European (and USA) societies

 
• this is slowly changing now IN WESTERN SOCIETY, but not even to the level that Mundurucu women enjoy!


• how valid is it?

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Age Grouping (299-302)
• seems to be a basic response to peers in one's own society, world-wide and historically

• in many societies, people are grouped together and socialized together in age groups by means of institutional structure

 
• North American society  
• children's first friends are usually same-age children

• children are educated in same-age grades (and choose their friends from their grades)

• people are divided between "of age" (eligible to drive, drink, serve in the military, marry, etc.) and "under age"

• older folks are grouped together?in retirement homes and villages, often set apart from the rest of society

 
• typically, seen as irrelevant to the functioning of society, so set apart

• the symbol of the "gold watch" upon retirement is telling

 
• given to the elderly so they can watch their last days tick away


• people are designated by age groups

 
• teenagers

• 30-somethings, etc.

• Generation X

• senior citizens


• American Jews of Eastern European descent

 
• from the 1930s on, Eastern European Jews had become well-assimilated into American society

• the newer, assimilated generation wanted to maintain their own values, separate from the older conventions of their elders

• they established cousin clubs, where same generation cousins maintained social and cultural continuity but excluded other generations

 
• these were ambilineal, like the family circles they derived from


• most societies honor the elderly as the repositories of the accumulated wisdom of their society

 
• even the Inuit, who are often depicted as setting their elderly off afloat on ice floes or some such, will "discard" their elderly only under the most extreme of circumstances Return to Top

INSTITUTIONS OF AGE GROUPING (301-302)

   
page 301  age grade an organized category of people based on age; every individual passes through a series of such categories during a lifetime

• age grades are not only a category of people, but it typically can be an organized class of people

 
• important to note that it typically can be organized

• organization can be either formal or informal


• membership can be automatic; but it also can be such that membership has to be purchased or that one has to qualify in some particular way

 
• membership entry or exit can be based on some biological distinction?such as puberty

• can also be based on some social distinction?marriage, childbirth, capturing one's first horse

• members of an age grade are not always of the same age

 
• Example: in America, some 20-somethings or people even older like to hang out with teenagers


• the older or younger an age grade does not in and of itself imply being better or worse
 
page 301  age sets groups of persons initiated into age grades simultaneously who move through the series of categories together
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AGE GROUPING IN AFRICAN SOCIETY (301-302)
 
• Example of an age set society: the Tiriki of East Africa: Kenya  
• the members stay with the same group of people through their lifetimes

• the age sets are divided into people who fall into 15 year periods

• sort of similar to our idea of generations

 
• only as a comparison, as a basis for thinking about them

• difference: the people in a true age set are a community, do things together, share similar symbols, eat, drink, act, do all things together, appropriate to their age (whatever that may be at whatever stage in life they are at)


• only one of the 7 age sets in this society is open at a time

• four (4) age grades exist in conjunction with these age sets

 
• the people in age sets move into and out of age grades in the same 15 year cycle that exists for the age sets


• the 4 age grades of the Tiriki of East Africa

 
• Warrior age grade  
• once the guardians of the people

• since colonized, they now leave the community to study or work abroad


• Elder Warriors

 
• administrators

• acted as negotiators for their community with other communities

• learned skills for the later age grades


• Judicial Elders

 
• served as the local judges, judging local disputes


• Ritual Elders

 
• served over ritual functions; served as the functional equivalents of priests

• credited as having special access to magic, to spirits, to ancestors

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Common Interest Associations (302-305)
 
page 302 common-interest associations associations not based on age, kinship, marriage, or territory but that result from an act of joining

• also known as voluntary associations, a term that can be misleading since membership may not at all be voluntary (e.g., being drafted into the army)

• endemic to modern society, where kinship and age grades do not fulfill the social requirements of people fully

• probably began when horticultural societies emerged some 10,000 years ago

KINDS OF COMMON-INTEREST ASSOCIATIONS (303-305)
 
• some examples of common interest associations  
• occupational

• military

• supernatural/religious

• political

• entertainment

• to maintain specific traditions

• educational

• name a common interest, and you can find a common interest association
 

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Men's and Women's Associations (304-305)
 
• it used to be thought (promoted by Heinrich Schurtz, 1902) that men developed associations "naturally" because of their tendency to roam more, while women tended not to form associations because of their focus on reproduction and the household

• this is now recognized as a culture-bound theory and is generally discarded by anthropologists

• in most (but not all) societies, women have had both segregated associational complexes as well as involvement in male-dominated associations

• urbanized society has accelerated the status of women in associational activities and in formation of them

 
• Kenneth Little has noted that adaptation is the key impulse for associations in urban environments

• adaptation here means mainly economic adaptation: raise capital, regulate prices, discourage competition, organize cooperative activities
 
 

ASSOCIATIONS IN THE POSTINDUSTRIALWORLD (305-306)

                 • in North America a recent decline has been noted in the participation of common-interest associations

                 • likely cause is watching an average of 4 hours of television

                    • also Americans work longer hours than others in industrialized countries

                    • the rise of the Internet, can stay in touch without having to leave home

                                • resulting in the creation of "virtual" common-interest associations
 

            • thus common-interest associations may not be declining as much as they are transforming
 
 
Anthropology Applied:  [on pp. 306-308]
DIGITAL REVOLUTION: INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN CYBERIA
LEARN THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS STUDY IN ANTHROPOLOGY

UNDERSTAND WHY THIS STUDY IS PLACED UNDER THIS SECTION

• with the invention of the Internet, many indigenous communities are taking active parts in expanding their communication capabilities

• hundreds of North American Indian Tribes have set up their own web sites allowing virtual tours of their communities, as well as other tribal groups all over the world

           • what are the benefits of these indigenous internet sites? 

           • are there representational drawbacks on the Internet for indigenous groups?
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Social Stratification (308-319)
 
page 308 stratified society the division of society into two or more categories of peole who do not share equally in the vasic resources that support life, influence, and prestige

• Haviland says that the presence of social stratification "amounts to institutionalized inequality" (p. 309)

 
• is this fair?

• what does it mean?

• why would he say this?

• if it's unfair, why is it found almost universally?


• social stratification involves a complex system of status assignations, duties, and responsibilities

• typically, the lower in the social stratigraphy, the more difficult, the more undesirable the duties and responsibilities, and the least rewarding, materially or socially
 
page 309 egalitarian societies social systems that have as many valued positions as persons capable of filling them

• egalitarian societies tend to exist in food-foraging bands, although not always

• generally, in such societies, all people have about equal access to resources and to community supplies

• generally, in such societies, people do what they excel at (in their socially accepted spheres of activity)

• people the world over have developed gobs of different systems by which to differentiate one person from another even in the same society: that is, to stratify

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Anthropology Applied:  [on pp. 310]
ANTHROPOLOGISTS AND SOCIAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT
LEARN THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS STUDY IN ANTHROPOLOGY

UNDERSTAND WHY THIS STUDY IS PLACED UNDER THIS SECTION

• social impact assessments: "collection of data about a community or neighborhood for use by planners of development projects"

• used to determine who will feel the impact of the planning, whom will be affected by the development
• in USA, all federally-funded or licensed projects must have a social impact assessment performed prior to any physical work
• highway construction

• urban renewal

• land reclamation

• water diversion

• Sue Ellen Jacobs did a social impact assessment of a water diversion project planned by the Bureau of Land Reclamation and the Bureau of Indian Affairs
• the plan was to construct a dam that would provide jobs to Hispanic and Indian residents and would construct an extensive canal system to facilitate increased agricultural activities

• Sue Ellen Jacobs wrote against it, and persuaded Congress not to fund it

• what were her points?

• what would the impact have been, socially and culturally?

• how was this persuasive to Congress?
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CLASS AND CASTE (309-313)
 
page 309 social class a category of individuals who enjoy equal or nearly equal prestige according to the evaluation system

• perception of class is relative: the distinctions are not clear-cut

• people within a particular class—the rich, e.g.—will themselves consider some people within their class and others not within it, while people outside the rich may consider a different set as belonging

• class designation does not always refer to economic factors

 
• people may be considered high or low class in terms of taste, for example (preferring opera is considered high class in Western society, while preferring country music is considered low class)


• typically, class differentiation depends upon a variety of interacting factors (economics, social status, aesthetic preferences, behavior, occupation, appearance, civic involvement)
 
page 309 caste a special form of social class in which membership is determined by birth and remains fixed for life

• caste systems, being endogamous, are much more clear-cut

• India is the most famous example

 
• literally thousands of castes exist in India, based on birth and on occupation

• these thousands are divided up into four major groups

 
• Brahmins, the highest, who are considered the purest, the most highly evolved spiritually?the priestly caste

• the warriors, politically powerful, also pure (but not as pure as the Brahmins)?control the village lands

• artisans

• laborers

 
• both artisans and laborers own the tools of their trade and perform services for the warrior caste landowners

• they, however, are landless


• untouchables, or outcasts

 
• own nothing, neither land nor tools

• provide all of the unskilled and menial labor


• the Indian caste system is considered by some to be unique

 Return to Top • others think its model applies to other systems, such as apartheid in South Africa (where blacks serve as the landless untouchables who serve as the mobile available work force);  
• or a similar mobile, landless work force in China that developed about 2200 years ago, about the same time as the caste system in India;

• or a similar mobile, unemployed or under-employed, impoverished workforce in the USA in an increasingly mobile, increasingly dichotomized society

• are these comparisons valid?

• is the USA or apartheid in South Africa symptomatic of caste or class systems?


• "basis of social class structure is role differentiation" (p. 311)

 
• what does this mean?

• is role differentiation in and of itself sufficient to establish social stratification?

• does role differentiation occur among food foragers? are they class stratified?


• three ingredients together are necessary for social stratification

 
• role differentiation

• formalized, institutionalized methods for assessing whether particular roles are valued or not valued, desirable or undesirable

• restricted access to the roles that are most highly valued


• in societies that are the most diverse in terms of roles?e.g., Western civilization, Eastern civilization?social stratification will emerge as one of the most salient traits

• People notice or assess or evaluate class membership of others in various ways; the indications of class membership are manifest in different ways

 
• Haviland mentions three ways that social classes become manifest within a society  
• verbal evaluation

• patterns of association

• symbolic indicators

 Return to Top • Verbal evaluation
 
 
page 312 verbal evaluation the way people in a stratified society evaluate society members

• this is really "what people say about others in their own society" (p. 312)

 
• Jerry Berger is a great example of this in St. Louis society!


• people notice the symbols of class, and what they notice tends to indicate the values of the society

 
• for example: in a society that highly values capital wealth, things that require a lot of money (or whatever wealth) will indicate to others the higher status of the owner; anything associated with that wealth would be noticed and spoken of

• the symbols are diffused throughout society, so that anything can be singled out for notice

 
• political, religious, military, economic, occupational roles; wealth; property; kinship; personal qualities; community activities


• since all societies are different, the symbols of prestige will be different, so will be assessed differently

 
• the profusion of yams in the South Seas means little to Americans, whereas American love of money meant (historically) little to South Sea Islanders


• Patterns of association

 
• this is basically the observation of who interacts with whom and in what ways

• typically in Western society, people interact with people of the same class in an informal, friendly manner

• likewise, people interact with people of a differential class in a more awkward?and thus, more structured, socially prescribed?way

 
• as Haviland says, often through stereotypic action


• The Example: the interactions between a corporate executive and a janitor in the same building

 Return to Top • Symbolic indicators
 
page 312 symbolic indicators in a stratified society, activities and possessions indicative of social class

  • Examples:  
• occupation

• dress

• wealth

• recreation

• residential location & house type

• make of car

• cultural activities


• The most accurate means probably is the patterns of association

 
• for example: the old rich will not associate with the new rich, simply because they do not have class Return to Top

MOBILITY (313-315)
 
page 313 mobility the ability to change one's class position

• all stratified societies have some mobility, some chance for moving from one class to another

• some have more mobility than others

• some construct an ideal of tremendous potential for mobility but actually have very little, at least in the short term

• India's caste system

 
• has the image of very little mobility  
• people born into a caste and are stuck there the rest of their lives


• but the castes are constructed within a religious framework, not an economic one

• each caste has dozens of subcastes

• it is possible for an individual or a family to enrich themselves in a lower caste, even to employ or in other ways economically control upper-caste Indians

 
• in Rajasthan, the politically and economically powerful members of society belong to the lowest caste, and their tenants and laborers are Brahmins

• others claim they were unfairly divested of their higher caste status in a previous age and actually deserve to be called Brahmins, now that the outrage is known


• the constant is: everyone accepts the caste system; what is contested is where each person's particular place within the system should be
 
page 314 closed-class societies stratified societies that severely restrict social mobility
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page 314 open-class societies stratified societies that permit a great deal of social mobility

• USA class system

 
• the "rags-to-riches" belief is rampant in the USA, bolstered by traditional stories of people like Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Alva Edison, Booker T. Washington, Sam Walton, etc.?people who became wealthy or famous in their own lifetime, yet starting from very modest beginnings

• in fact, social mobility in the USA is very gradual?typically people move up the social or economic ladder only a rung at a time (i.e., per generation)

 
• in the family, the mobility can be incremental?a rung each generation can result in significant family mobility over several generations


• downward mobility is far more common, and far easier to accomplish


• the type of mobility is associated with the kind of family organization that is prevalent

 
• extended families: very difficult to accomplish much mobility  
• because each member of the family would have to be dragged along, which is both economically and socially difficult  
• an example might be the fictional Beverly Hillbillies


• nuclear families: easier to accomplish upward mobility

 
• individual is not tied to as many people

• individual can accomplish mobility through several means

 
• occupational mobility

• mobility through marriage

• disassociation from a lower-class family by establishing a neolocal residence

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GENDER STRATIFICATION (315)
• this is a basic form of social stratification

• in many societies, men and women are perceived as having different social status

• typically, women come out on the low end of this perception

• gender stratification happens most typically in societies where other kinds of stratification occur as well

• nonetheless, gender stratification may occur even where no other stratifying distinctions are made

 
• in such societies, men and women may establish separate residences

• again, this is not always the case?as the Iroquois example demonstrates
 

DEVELOPMENT OF STRATIFICATION (316-319)
• stratification, which is a social mechanism to differentiate between people economically, culturally, etc., works because people within the society accept it

• why would the lower classes accept it?

 
• cultural expectation that they might one day, through mobility, attain the privileged positions

• religion (which offers a vision of the afterlife as the site of one's rewards)

 
• as in India, where the Hindus accept that each person is born into his/her caste because of a past life of good or evil deeds  
• if one does well in this life, one will die and be reborn in a higher caste, or even, out of the caste system into a reunification into the divinity


• or in USA and Western society

 
• where Christianity in some of its forms espouse the linking of material success with moral superiority (the Protestant Ethic): i.e., if you do well in the world materially, then it is a sign that you are a good person, while if you do poorly in this world materially, it is a sign that you are immoral, evil, and obviously not blessed by God in some way

• alternatively: the poor gain satisfaction from the New Testament maxim that the poor will inherit the Kingdom of God (i.e., heaven), so that in dying (very like the Hindu) the truly virtuous will attain true heavenly bliss and/or rewards

 Return to Top • stratification may arise from the desire for establishing prestige, either individually but especially in families  
• the expression, the manifestation of prestige will differ according to the values of the society?ritual prestige, material prestige, intellectual prestige, most typically a combination of these various types

• Mayan society apparently developed into a stratified society after a lineage established ritual predominance by being able to control/manipulate the supernatural in the always uncertain agricultural sphere

 
• once they became established as a sacred lineage, they established hereditary ruling dynasties

• from this developed a hierarchy of prestigious civic and ceremonial lineages, from which a class system developed


• stratification may arise from one people conquering another

 
• South Africa, where Europeans conquered and subjected the native Africans

• USA/North America/South America, where Europeans conquered and subjected native Indian groups

• India, where conquering peoples apparently became the higher levels of the caste system (perhaps the warrior caste)


• or: class differences may translate into a metaphor that distinguishes people as different ethnic groups, resulting in the stratification of the ethnic groups

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created: January 28, 2001
last revised: January 10, 2002
this revision: April 5, 2002