Jenny Ly

Sociology 1
Professor Lookholder
February 20, 2016
Social Stratification is how society ranks people by categories. It
ranges from peoples ethnicities to their genders. Social Class is related to
social stratification because it is a type of social stratification. The class you
are in is how stratified you are in society. The four systems of stratification
are slavery, caste, estate, and class. The slavery stratification consists of two
levels, some people who are free and others who arent free. An example
would be slavery in the United States in the 1860s. A caste system is full of
groups with features that are given to them at birth by society. An example
of a caste system would be the society in India. An estate system divides
people into three groups; which were the clergyman, the nobles, and the
commoners. An example would be in the Middle Ages when people were
separated in those three categories. Class system stratification is when
people are categorized by how many possessions they have. Todays society
is an example of a class system. Slavery, caste and estate systems reflect
ascribed statuses because people are born into slavery and what caste
system their family is in. The one that reflects achieved status is class
because you can work hard and try to have as many possessions as you can.

According to Karl Marx, means of production are the beliefs taught

about reality by education and religion. Marx believes that the bourgeoisie
controlled the means of production. The difference between the bourgeoisie
and proletariat is that the bourgeoisie is the working class while the
proletariats are the capitalist class. Their relationship the means of
production is that the bourgeoisie have more control over the means of
production, so they are able to make profit. Class consciousness is the
understanding of what class a person is. Dominant ideology is beliefs that a
majority of society believes in. False consciousness is how some of the
processes in society mislead the majority of the population.
Weber referred to people who have the same/almost the same level of
economic resources as a class. Status group was a reference to people who
are perceived as on the same level of respect. An example of a class would
be the working class and the non-working class. Marx and Webers views on
social class differed because Marx viewed social class as two classes and
Weber saw that there were three ways to categorize society.
Cultural Capital is liked to class differences because people in different
social classes receive different amount of power. Cultural Capital is linked to
power differences because people in different social classes have different
amounts of cultural capital which means there are power differences.
Cultural capital expressed in attire, housing, vacations, food and sport by
putting money into it, which involves financial capital.