Groupings Beyond Kinship: Gender, Age, Common

Interest and Social Status

Lolita Nikolova

Reference: Haviland et al. 2005

Chapter Outline What principles do people use to

organize societies? What is age grading? What are common- interest

associations?

Grouping by Gender Separates men and women to

varying degrees in different societies. In some societies, they may be

together much of the time. In other societies they may spend

much time apart, even to the extreme of eating and sleeping separately.

Age Grades A category of persons, usually of the

same sex, organized by age. Some societies divide age grades into

sets, which include individuals who move together through a series of life stages.

A specific time is often ritually established for moving from a younger to an older age grade.

Age Grouping: Tiriki Seven named age sets pass

through four successive age grades.

Each age set embraces a 15-year span and opens to accept new initiates every 105 years.

In principle, the system resembles our college classes.

Common-interest Associations Linked with rapid social change

and urbanization. Increasingly assumed roles

formerly played by kinship or age groups.

Membership may range from voluntary to legally compulsory.

Gender and Common-interest Associations Social scientists used to view women’s

associations as less developed than men’s. Still a question of why women are barred

from associations in some societies, while in others they participate equally with men.

Participation in conventional associations has declined as online associations have grown in popularity.

Groupings in Society Stratified society: divided into

categories of people who do not share equally in resources, influence, or prestige.

Egalitarian society - has as many valued positions as persons capable of filling them.

Types of Social Stratification Gender Age Social class Caste

Caste Systems A social class in which membership

is determined by birth and fixed for life.

Children automatically belong to their parents’ caste.

Ways of Expressing Social Class Verbal evaluation - what people

say about other people in their society.

Patterns of association - who interacts with whom, how, and in what context.

Ways of Expressing Social Class Symbolic indicators - activities

and possessions indicative of class position.

Differences in life chances - high-status people generally live longer and in better health than people of low status.

Class Mobility Open-class societies are those with the

easiest mobility. Degree of mobility is related to

education or type of family organization that prevails in a society.

Where the extended family is the norm, mobility tends to be severely limited.

Social Stratification: Criteria Wealth Legal status Birth Personal qualities Ideology